Joe Keohane

Joseph "Joe" Keohane (1918 – 5 January 1988) was an Irish Gaelic football manager, selector and former player. His league and championship career with the Kerry senior team spanned thirteen seasons from 1936 to 1948. Keohane is widely regarded as one of the greatest players in the history of the game.

Born in Tralee, County Kerry, Keohane played competitive Gaelic football in his youth. By his late teens he had established himself as a key member of the John Mitchels senior team. In a twenty-year club career Keohane won three county senior championship medals.

Keohane made his debut on the inter-county scene at the age of seventeen when he was selected on the Kerry minor team in 1936. He enjoyed one championship season with the minor team, however, he was ended his tenure in this grade as an All-Ireland runner-up. He was still a member of the minor team when he made his senior debut during the 1936 championship. Over the course of the next thirteen seasons, Keohane won five All-Ireland medals, beginning with a lone triumph in 1937, three championships in-a-row from 1939 to 1941 and a final victory in 1946. He also won eleven Munster medals. Keohane played his last game for Kerry in August 1948.

After being chosen on the Munster inter-provincial team for the first time in 1938, Keohane was an automatic choice on the starting fifteen for much of his inter-county career. During that time he won two Railway Cup medals.

In retirement from playing Keohane became involved in team management and coaching. He served as manager, trainer and selector with the Kerry senior team at various times between 1969 and 1988 and helped guide Kerry through a period of unprecedented provincial and national dominance, winning twenty three major honours. These include nine All-Ireland Championships, including a record-equalling four-in-a-row between 1978 and 1981 and a three-in-a-row between 1984 and 1986, eleven Munster Championships and three National Leagues, including two league-championship doubles.

Even during his playing days Keohane came to be recognised as one of the greatest players of all time. After being passed over for selection on the Football Team of the Century in 1984, he was posthumously named in the full-back position on the Football Team of the Millennium in 1999. Keohane was also selected on a list of the 125 greatest Gaelic footballers of all time in a 2009 poll.^[1]

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