Kieran Donaghy reveals the only apology he ever regrets from his career

Kieran Donaghy got in a lot of faces over his illustrious basketball and GAA career. He only ever openly apologised for it once.

Now he regrets it. 'Star' began his senior Kerry career as a midfielder who felt it was best to catch the ball and ship it to Darragh O Sé or one of the other "skillful players" on his team. He was re-purposed as a dominant target-man, up front, a few years into his intercounty career and never looked back. He took skills learned on the basketball court and used them to wreak havoc on opposition defences. He had many a joust over his storied Kerry career and many of them were with northern powerhouses Tyrone and Armagh. The All-Ireland winner sat down with Colm Parkinson for SportsJOE's GAA Hour and gave further insight to some of the great tales in his autobiography 'Kieran Donaghy: What do you think of that?' He recalled the 2006 All-Ireland quarter final victory over Armagh, in which he scored a goal and got right up in the faces of goalkeeper Paul Hearty and defender Francie Bellew. He made an apology on the national airwaves a couple of weeks later but it never sat well with him. Donaghy revealed:

"It was my uncle, Brian, that had a word with me. He'll hate me saying that now but he was like, 'Oh Jesus, you'll have to go out and apologise. that was desperate - roaring in fellas' faces'. "I didn't see any issues with it. I had been doing it all through my basketball career. He had been giving me plenty of it from minute one to minute 36, 38 or whatever and I had one chance to answer it back. That was the best way to answer it - stick it in the onion sack. "I shouldn't have apologised. I regret it now, to be honest, but my uncle said it was the right thing to do. "I ended up getting man of the match in the semi-final against Cork and said 'Do you know what? I'll keep him happy now'. So I went, 'Oh I'm sorry for shouting in the Armagh fella's face'."

Donaghy can still recall a piece written by Kingdom legend Dara Ó Cinnéide around the time - stating that he had nothing to apologise for - and he now agrees with it. There you have it - sorry he was sorry when he really wasn't sorry. Colm Parkinson chats to Kerry GAA legend, and author, Kieran Donaghy in a special edition of The GAA Hour. Listen below or subscribe on iTunes