Kerry and Donegal might have barely played each other over the years at Championship level, but it is easy to forget that Jim McGuinness knows a thing or two about the Kingdom.
The Donegal manager, whose team takes on Kerry in this year's All Ireland football final, studied at Tralee IT, winning Sigerson Cups in the process.
Our own Colm 'Wooly' Parkinson was one of his team-mates late on in the Tralee trilogy of trophies and tonight we were joined by his former college coach Val Andrews and ex-Kerry and IT Tralee player Barry O'Shea to paint a picture of McGuinness' time as the Lord of the Kerry Ring in the late '90s.
McGuinness was part of a superb forward line that also featured Galway All Ireland winners Padraig Joyce and Michael Donnelan, with Val Andrews describing it as like a "modern inter-county setup" in terms of the approach to the game and the financial backing. Of McGuinness, Andrews remembered him as a "very focused lad" who was totally committed, even playing on in the 1998 final despite having an injury.
But why did a Donegal man end up studying at the other end of the country?
"Why did he end up in Tralee? I mean he came from Donegal to study in Tralee and that was driven by being fascinated with how Kerry won so many All Irelands and to learn from people like Barry [O'Shea] and looking for the X Factor," said Andrews.
While Wooly remembers McGuinness as the driving force behind the 1999 Sigerson-winning team, Barry O'Shea recalls someone who was "quieter in the dressing room".
"He's an infectious kind of a character," said O'Shea. "You just follow him and you like him. He's a likable lad and he definitely has a charisma that's kind of indefinable."
But Andrews did not automatically see him going into management in the future.
"I wouldn't have picked him out in '98 to go on to be the manager that he is or to go into management. But he was a student of the game. But he was obviously looking at what was going on and picked bits and pieces. But he's also taken bits of pieces from Glasgow, Jordanstown and Donegal."
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