Most things get easier when you’re preparing for your eighth All-Ireland final, and for Kerry captain Paul Geaney that includes knowing how to switch off from football completely. Having three young kids at home helps in that regard.At the close of his 16th season with Kerry, Geaney’s All-Ireland final experience began with the 2014 win over Donegal and included the 2019 replay defeat to Dublin. Victory over Mayo on Sunday would bring his fourth winner’s medal in all, having also won a first All-Ireland club title with Dingle at the start of this year.“I probably got overexcited in the earlier years with big games,” Geaney says of this week’s final countdown. “Probably spent every second thinking about the game and playing out different situations.“So it’s knowing just to relax a little bit more. Open windows, I suppose, go out for a walk and do a little bit of thinking about scenario-based stuff there, but then just park it again. You lose a lot of energy when you’re doing that all week for two weeks before a game. In the early part of my career, you’d a month, so it was a bit longer, so you’ll probably have less time now to be thinking about it.”After Geaney’s first All-Ireland win in 2014, he also started dating Siún Ó Sé, daughter of Kerry’s eight-time All-Ireland winner Páidí Ó Sé. Married in 2018, they now have two sons, Páidí and Paul Óg, and a daughter, Christina.“My family is a good filler for that too,” Geaney says of All-Ireland final day. “The kids don’t really know there’s a game until the day, so they don’t know there’s a big game happening on Sunday. Páidí does at this stage, he’s nine, but the other two don’t. So a bit of roaring and shouting around the place, that’ll distract you.“I’d say in 2022, I probably spent too much time thinking about it. My daughter was born the week before the semi-final, the Dublin game. Obviously your life changes when a child comes into it, and that was our second child. I was nearly overcompensating, trying to make sure I was right for an All-Ireland final. “I was just seeping energy everywhere. If I just relaxed a little bit more around that semi-final, final, I probably would have been in better stead. After that as well you realise that you don’t have a pile of years left, so you kind of relax a little bit more as well in your football.”[ Dingle’s Paul Geaney: ‘I don’t want to be selfish. I’m just lucky that I can be’Opens in new window ]Geaney has also learned to spend the least amount of time possible around his business in Dingle, Paul Geaney’s Bar & Restaurant, given the inevitable conversations around Sunday’s final, from those in or out of the know.“It’s tough all right to not get drawn into talking about the game. So don’t be loitering around the pub around this time of year. Get in, do the few jobs I have to do, and get away from it. Do some stuff in the background instead, or get in the morning before we open.”Kerry's Dylan Geaney in action against Donegal at Croke Park on March 29th. Photograph: Tom Maher/Inpho Geaney didn’t start Kerry’s semi-final win over Dublin due to injury, but has declared himself fit for Sunday. At 35, he also admits his love for football was revitalised with the introduction of the new playing rules last year, without which he might well have retired.“In 2018 I probably should have taken a year out. Looking back, I was pretty much sick of it. I don’t think I’d be here if the rules didn’t change, because it’s just so enjoyable, really. Club football is so enjoyable as well.“Of course there’s moments in games where you have to do jobs of other positions, but for the most part everybody plays their role and I would assume for even the corner backs that’s more enjoyable.”There’s ample sporting pedigree in Geaney’s own family. His grandfather Paudie Fitzgerald was one of the greats of Kerry cycling, winning the Rás Tailteann in 1956, and his cousin Dylan Geaney is being hailed as the most-improved Kerry footballer this season. Which doesn’t surprise Geaney in the slightest: along with Dylan’s brothers Conor and Niall, he’s known about their talents since they first started kicking ball around the sports field in Dingle.“Growing up, going up to the sports field with those three lads, we used to have kicking competitions, and Dylan probably won most of them, even though he was the youngest – 10 years younger than me, I’d say. “When Dylan was 14, Tommy Griffin wrote a piece in the Examiner about looking out his window, which looks down on the sports field in Dingle, and commented on Dylan practising his kicking. And it was a regular occurrence. “That was probably it with all of us. We just went up to the sports field with a bag of balls and kicked all throughout our childhood. And kicked left and right. Two-footedness and kicking were always our thing.“Dylan’s accuracy was always his key attribute. His agility as well is incredible. Kicking coaches can help you a little bit, but then sometimes they can muddle it up. It’s all about just going out, and getting the feel, and adjusting yourself to what works.“He’s 24, and now he’s starting to fill out. Then he has all the other bits. With any forward, confidence is a big part, and he’s full of confidence now this year.”