Paul Geaney says Dingle “didn't panic” when trailing at the end of the first-half in Sunday’s Kerry senior football championship final against Austin Stacks.

Having fallen five points behind their Tralee counterparts after the opening 20 minutes at Austin Stack Park, Dingle would go in trailing at the break by 0-8 to 0-4.

The second-half saw the men from the peninsula upping it a gear and two late goals from their captain Geaney propelled them to a 2-13 to 1-12 victory, marking the club’s first county SFC success in 77 years.

“Calm it down and just pick away and go to 60 [minutes],” Geaney told RTE Sport about the message at half-time inside the Dingle dressing room. “We didn't panic. And sometimes when you're out of possession, you can panic and force things.

"The boys [in defence] stood up and fronted up and got us the ball. Some things weren't working. And then Tom [O'Sullivan] launches one from a long way out, which is probably something we used to do when we were in the last couple of minutes of a game. We still had that in the locker and we launched it and ended up in the back of the net. And we got a lot of confidence from that.

"I was going to catch it and I was thinking 'It's very slippy, it's probably going to go through my hands'. When the ball comes in like that, sometimes you just need to guide it. I had a vague idea where the goal was, but I just said I'd just touch it on and see what happens.

"The goalkeeper wasn't going to be set. He nearly got to it still, so I was lucky enough that it crept in the back post.

"Then, Ned [Ryan] picked up the break and he could have thrown it over the bar. In fairness to him, I called him and he just gave it. I could have tapped it over the bar, but I just felt like, you know, you only get these chances sometimes in your life. I just went for it.

"It's probably just an old instinct in the body to take a chance and go for the goals. And I got the just rewards there. So it was great."

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