Here’s a deep dive into the life of Keely Hodgkinson ahead of the Olympic champion aiming to add another gold medal to her ever-growing list of honours

Keely Hodgkinson aims to become the woman to beat in the 400m event at the UK Athletics Championship.

The competition begins on Saturday at the Alexander Stadium in Birmingham with the 24-year-old seeking a sub-50-second run in the distance after setting a personal best at the Rome Diamond League earlier this month.

The reigning Olympic champion in the 800m is set to compete at her favoured distance but admitted testing herself at 400m is an exciting prospect. She said: “The 400m, for me, is a bit of fun as well as something different. I’ve really thrown myself in the deep end and I’m looking forward to challenging myself in that environment.

“I’ve always considered myself a 400-800-type athlete. I don’t think I’ve shown all my potential in the and I got a bit of a glimpse of what I could do at the Indoor Championships, so I’m really excited to bring that outdoors. I’m still very much learning the event. I am still not quite sure how to bring it.”

Embracing the challenge of winning in two events, Wales Online takes a closer look at Hodgkinson’s life away from the track.

Keely Hodgkinson’s split from boyfriend

The Team GB star enjoyed a dream 2024 that included two Olympic medals, including gold in the 800m, before being named the the BBC Sports Personality of the Year. However, she endured heartbreak in her romantic life at the beginning of the year after revealing her three-year relationship with another runner came to an end due to long-distance issues.

“He lived in Texas for a bit, then in Italy, then London. There was always a distance and, because I do what I do and put that first, we could go weeks, months and not see each other,” she told The Times in October 2024. “I’m not really interested in dating right now. I’ve never been on the apps. I like meeting people in real life.”

Friendship with Manchester United star

Not only does Fred Longworth High School in Tyldesley boast Hodgkinson as an alumna, but England and Manchester United star Ella Toone too. Despite the footballer being two years older than the runner, the pair struck up a close friendship.

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Opening up about their bond in 2022, Hodgkinson said: “We are just two young girls living their dreams. Ella and I went to school together. She was two years older but somehow we ended up getting on really well.

“I was always referred to as the ‘mini Ella’ growing up at school. So we kept in touch from that and she was in Tokyo last year as well. We are just two young girls living their dreams.”

Hodgkinson’s behaviour called out

World Athletics president and Team GB legend Seb Coe has witnessed Hodgkinson’s excellence up close and had only kind words to say about her character away from athletics after bumping into her while she celebrated her birthday.

Speaking on the UNTAPPED podcast, Coe praised the humbleness of the 24-year-old, as he said: “What I love about Keely is she is probably the most, forget athletics, she’s probably the most authentic person I currently know.

“What you see with Keely is what you get. She is very funny, she’s totally driven, but she puts things in perspective. I was up in Manchester not that long ago and I bumped into her one night going into a restaurant.

“I was on my way out. I’d sort of done the early shift and she turned up and it was her birthday. It was a couple of weeks… I mean she’d only just broken the indoor world record.

“She was only literally a few days away from destroying the field and winning her world indoor title and she was just out celebrating her birthday. She’s just completely normal, but she is incredibly well talented.

“She’s got a great coaching team around her. I’m probably going to lose whatever fan base I’ve got left in the south of England, but she’s absolutely rooted to the north of England and that for me counts for a lot in life.”

Sky Sports, HBO Max, Netflix and Disney+ with Ultimate TV package

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Sky has upgraded its Ultimate TV and Sky Sports bundle to now include HBO Max, Netflix, Disney+, discovery+ and Hayu, as well as 135 channels and full Sky coverage of the Premier League and EFL.

Sky broadcasts more than 1,400 live matches across the Premier League, EFL and more with at least 215 live from the top flight alongside Formula 1, darts and golf.

Developer Rockstar Games confirmed that pre-orders for the game will soon go live and dropped new screenshots, but fans have noticed a few issues with what they’ve seen

Fresh Grand Theft Auto 6 teasers have renewed anticipation for the biggest game of the year.

In an announcement this week, Rockstar said that pre-orders for GTA 6 will finally go live in a matter of days. Excited gamers will be able to pre-order GTA 6 next week, beginning on Thursday, June 25.

GTA 6 is due for release later this year after 18 months of delays. Having been planned to originally land in May 2025, it’ll now come out on November 19.

New screenshots and the game’s official cover art have been unveiled as part of the pre-order news. However, while many are excited for a fresh look at the game, eagle-eyed fans have spotted the same three problems with new teasers, reports the Express.

One of which is that a screenshot showing off Vice City “looks exactly like GTA V“, the predecessor released 13 years prior to GTA 6’s new launch date. After a Reddit user shared the image from the game’s official site, responses appeared to indicate widespread agreement.

One Redditor commented: “Could have said it’s GTA 5 and I wouldn’t have questioned it.” Another remarked: “Kinda GTA5 with the same lightings.”

A third Reddit user noted: “Lol looks exactly like V with the ferris wheel and layout.” Another issue spotted by fans relates to that very same ferris wheel.

Members of the r/Gaming subreddit noticed that its reflection was missing from the water below in Vice City. After one user pointed it out, another joking replied: “Delay it again.”

Another concern united Reddit users, as many demanded more content. One user fumed: “Gameplay. Gameplay. Where’s the damn gameplay.”

Another chimed in: “I don’t think anyone was debating whether the game would look nice or not. Rockstar needs a gameplay trailer or something like that.”

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One frustrated fan urged Rockstar to “give us a reason to open our wallets”, adding: “Pre-orders are in a week and I’m expected to drop money on a game that has nothing to show other than some flashy pre-rendered cutscenes that may or may not be in engine.

“What is going on. The name alone will carry it but I am still on the fence.”

Making light and fluffy homemade scones has never been easier – you don’t need to be adding a few common ingredients to bake the perfect scone at home.

Scones are a quintessentially British treat best enjoyed with a generous dollop of good jam and clotted cream. Irresistibly sweet and indulgent, they’re the sort of delight that makes abandoning a diet entirely worthwhile.

They’re remarkably straightforward to make, meaning you needn’t wait for a formal afternoon tea to indulge. Summer provides the ideal backdrop for a leisurely, decadent afternoon tea, whether you’re relaxing in the cool shade or soaking up the sunshine.

If you’ve been inspired by The Great British Bake Off and fancy having a go at baking, scones are an excellent place to start.

Scone-making is relatively uncomplicated — you simply combine all the ingredients in a single bowl and mix — but if you’d like to streamline the process even further, experts recommend using just three basic ingredients.

Baking enthusiast Georgie, who runs the food blog The Home Cook’s Kitchen, has shared an “easy” recipe for scones that are like “biting into a piece of heaven”.

She said, “These scones are really easy to make and only require three simple ingredients – lemonade (Sprite), cream and self-raising flour.” For this recipe you needn’t require eggs, sugar or butter.

Georgie emphasised that using self-raising flour is absolutely crucial, as it acts as the raising agent, while the lemonade will render them “light, fluffy and just a little bit sweet”.

By swapping butter for double cream, you’ll achieve a softer, more moist scone. This also reduces the effort involved in preparing your dough, allowing you to bypass the tiresome step of rubbing butter and flour together by hand.

Lemonade is the secret ingredient that delivers a light texture to your scones. The fizz in the carbonated drink produces bubbles, which get trapped within the dough.

These minuscule air pockets expand while baking, aerating the mixture and prompting the scones to rise. This process eventually delivers that wonderful light and fluffy outcome you’re after.

Alongside using lemonade to achieve supremely fluffy scones, it’s equally crucial not to overwork the dough.

Georgie instructed, “To make the dough come together, you want to ‘cut’ or mix the dough with a knife. This will help you avoid overkneading.”

Three-ingredient scones recipe

Ingredients

• 4 1/2 cups of self-raising flour
• 1 1/4 cups of double cream
• 1 1/2 cups of lemonade
• One tablespoon of milk, for glazing the top of the scones

Method

1. Begin by preheating your oven to 200C/180C Fan/Gas Mark 6 before sieving flour into a large bowl and incorporating cream and lemonade.
2. Using a knife, gently “mix” or “cut” the dough until combined. Generously flour a work surface, and with floured hands, tip the dough onto your floured surface.
3. The dough will be tacky, so it’s advisable to have a well-floured surface and hands when rolling it out.
4. Should you discover it’s too sticky to handle, return the dough to the bowl and incorporate a little extra flour until it becomes manageable. The dough ought to be sticky, but not so much that you cannot actually work with it.
5. Form the dough into a rectangle roughly 4cm thick, then dip a wine glass in flour and use it to cut out rounds. Arrange these on a lined baking tray, reshaping the remaining dough and continuing to cut until none is left.
6. Lightly coat the tops of the scones with a small amount of milk, which will help achieve a golden finish. A gentle brush is all that’s needed.
7. Pop them in the oven for 25 to 35 minutes until they turn a rich golden brown on top. The scones should have a light, fluffy centre with a delicately browned exterior. Finish by serving with whipped cream and fresh raspberry jam.

At a time when Labour is polling at 19 per cent, he won 55 per cent of the vote. He beat all the combined forces of the right – Reform, Restore and the Conservatives – although he did so by stealing Reform’s slogan: a vote for me is a vote to get rid of Starmer.

So while this must be seen as a big personal vote for the mayor of Manchester, it must also be seen as a big personal vote against the Prime Minister? For all his achievements in and out of politics, Sir Keir Starmer comes across as mild-mannered, a bit bland and quite ineffectual. On the foreign stage, he has done pretty well – probably the only party leader who would not have gone to war with Donald Trump.

Yet in some quarters, he is absolutely hated, as our letters page shows on an almost daily basis. The vote in Makerfield also shows that.

So to prevent the infighting that bedevilled the Tories, Mr Starmer’s last act as PM is to find a dignified way to hand power to Mr Burnham.

But before he does that, Mr Burnham has to show he has an agenda to change Britain. Just fluttering his lavish eyebrows will not make the problems Mr Starmer faces go away. Debt, defence spending, cost of living, social care, immigration – what are his answers to any of them?

It is said that one of his closest allies is Energy Secretary Ed Miliband, yet in Aberdeen South, where the Tories made their first by-election gain in Scotland since 1967, his energy policy was massively repudiated. So will Mr Burnham stick with it, or will he change it?

At the moment, the Burnham bubble looks large and attractive, but bubbles without anything in them have a habit of going pop – and then where will that leave Labour and the country?

Sharon Michael was around 30 when the decision crystallised in her mind, quietly. There was no dramatic moment, no single life event that changed everything. Instead, it emerged through years of work, reflection and a growing sense that motherhood was not a future she wanted.

For generations, having children in India was less a choice than an expected chapter of adult life. Marriage was followed by parenthood, often with little discussion of alternatives. Today, that certainty is fading among married couples and single professionals alike; conversations around children are becoming more deliberate, more cautious and, in some cases, more sceptical.

“Having kids was never a priority,” says Michael, 36. “I have PCOD and I didn’t want to go through the whole process because of how much effort it takes and all of that,” she says, referring to polycystic ovarian disease, a hormonal condition that affects how the ovaries work and can cause irregular periods.

Michael, who works in the corporate sector, says parenthood would require sacrifices she is unwilling to make. “I do not see that lifestyle fitting in with a child specifically,” she says. “I would not be doing justice to either.” After taking a career break to pursue an MBA, she says she remains uncertain about stepping away from work again. “I still don’t feel ready myself to take up responsibility of that scale.”

She is an example of a highly-educated woman weighing up the balance of her options, rather than following what for previous generations was an assumed path through life. Such personal choices are now reflected in national statistics.

India’s total fertility rate – the average number of children a woman is expected to have during her lifetime – has for the first time fallen to 1.9, below the replacement level of 2.1 required to maintain a stable population, according to the latest Sample Registration System report.

The shift marks a remarkable demographic transformation for a country that spent decades worrying about rapid population growth. In the early 1990s, when women had an average of 3.4 children, family planning campaigns became part of public life and, at times, took controversial forms, including the forced sterilisation programme during the Emergency in 1970s.

Later campaigns encouraged couples to have no more than two children, and were popularised through slogans such as “Hum do, humare do”, loosely translating from Hindi as “We two, ours two”.

For decades, Indian governments worried about overpopulation.

Economists say that India should avoid viewing fertility decline as a crisis. Alicia García-Herrero, the chief economist for Asia Pacific at Natixis, explains the decline should not be viewed as a demographic failure.

“India’s fertility decline is not a failure – it’s a sign of progress,” she tells The Independent. “As women gain education, economic options and decision-making power, they are choosing smaller families.”

“The immediate impact is still positive,” says Garcia-Herrero. “India continues to benefit from a large working-age population.”

Behind the statistics lie millions of unique and intimate stories, a generation rethinking what family, success and fulfilment should look like.

The forces reshaping Indian families, she says, are the same ones that transformed societies across Europe and East Asia: rising female education, urbanisation, changing aspirations and the growing cost of raising children.

Sociological patterns visible across India’s geography support that argument. New Delhi records one of the country’s lowest fertility rates at 1.2 births per woman, while Kerala and Tamil Nadu stand at 1.3. Bihar, among India’s poorest states, records the highest rate at 2.9. In other words, birth rates closely mirror differences in education, healthcare, infant mortality and women’s economic participation.

For Akshita Gupta, a 35-year-old Mumbai resident and mother of a 21-month-old son and now pregnant with their second child, becoming a parent was always something she imagined for herself. “I’ve always felt maternal,” she says. “I have always felt I wanted a child.”

But before she and her husband started a family, they spent years discussing not just whether to have children, but how they would raise them. Financial security mattered alongside emotional stability and familial support.

“I feel our base was secure financially, emotionally,” she says. “And we both had our families. So I feel one is of course the inherent desire, but I also feel the fact that, you know, we had the support system.”

Even then, timing weighed heavily on her mind. Having watched friends undergo IVF treatment, Gupta was determined to try to conceive naturally. After consulting her gynaecologist, she set herself a goal of having children before the age of 35. “I wanted to have both my children before 35,” she says. “I had a few friends who were going through IVF and I saw their struggles.”

Demographers describe India’s falling fertility rate as part of a broader demographic transition seen across much of the world. As child mortality falls, healthcare improves, women gain greater access to education and people marry later, family sizes typically shrink.

Government data suggests several long-term changes have converged at once. Infant mortality has fallen sharply, dropping from 30 deaths per 1,000 live births in 2019 to 24 in 2024. At the same time, women are marrying later than previous generations. Nationally, 73.5 per cent of women now marry after the age of 21, while the figure rises to 82.2 per cent in urban India. In 2018, 64.5 per cent of women married in their 20s across the country.

“Higher levels of education, particularly among women, have played a key role, along with urbanisation, later marriages and delayed childbirth,” says development economist Dipa Sinha. “Improved access to health care and a sharp fall in infant mortality have also contributed.”

“More recently, you also see that the opportunity cost of having children is high.”

García-Herrero agrees that education sits at the centre of the transformation.

“The biggest drivers are female education and economic pressures,” she says. “Educated women marry later, use contraception more effectively and prioritise investing in fewer children.”

She argues that the decline reflects a broader expansion of female agency rather than a rejection of family life.

“This is the same story seen across developed and rapidly developing societies,” she says. “Female education is one of the strongest forces lowering fertility because it changes aspirations and gives women real choices.”

For some, the choice is about autonomy. Abhimanyu Sinha says he has never wanted children.

“That was a fairly unpopular opinion when I first used to say this when I was like 16-17,” he says. “I’ve noticed it’s sort of becoming essentially the norm now among people I speak to.”

The 28-year-old dismisses affordability as the primary explanation. “I think a lot of people hide behind claims like affordability, the rising cost of private school or housing,” he says. “In my social position, those aren’t as much of a concern. I just don’t want to tie myself down to that kind of thing.”

Looking ahead, he expects a longer and healthier life than previous generations experienced. “I don’t think that I wanna spend like… 70-80 years focused on one or two relationships, of children.”

His view reflects a broader cultural shift that researchers are observing globally. Parenthood is increasingly being weighed against other aspirations including travel, education, careers, relationships and personal freedom rather than treated as an inevitable destination.

García-Herrero says cultural changes are reinforcing the demographic transition. “This is not just economics,” she says. “It reflects women gaining agency and societies becoming more modern.”

The contrast with previous generations is striking. “When I think of myself having a kid,” Michael says, “I want that kid to have the best life possible.”

Her parents saw children as part of a social script, she says. “Their idea was that, OK, this is a rite of passage.” Today’s prospective parents often approach the decision differently. They want more involvement, more emotional awareness and more resources dedicated to each child.

Gupta sees that change in her own parenting. “Parents now are a lot more conscious,” she says. “About parenting styles, about what they are talking in front of their kids, what they’re exposing their children to.”

The result is that many families are choosing quality over quantity.

“Children have become more expensive,” says Sinha, the economist. Not only because costs have risen, she argues, but because parents increasingly want to invest more heavily in each child’s wellbeing and future.

India entered its demographic-dividend phase in 2005, when the share of working-age adults exceeded the combined number of children and elderly people. According to UN estimates, that demographic window is expected to last until around 2055.

The country’s median age remains just 29.8 years, younger than the global average of 31 and far below countries such as Britain, where the median age is more than 40. Economists argue that this gives India a rare opportunity to generate growth, create jobs and increase productivity before ageing becomes a more serious challenge.

“The real challenge will come in 15 to 20 years with a shrinking workforce and rising elderly dependency,” García-Herrero says.

“If there are fewer children born, then in about 30 to 40 years, India will have more older people who cannot participate in the labour force as much,” Sinha adds.

That raises questions about pensions, healthcare, elderly care and the future workforce.

It may also reshape politics. Southern states, which already have lower fertility rates and slower population growth, have expressed concerns that future redistribution of parliamentary seats based on population could reduce their political influence relative to faster-growing northern states.

Economists say the priority now should be making the most of India’s demographic dividend while it lasts.

Around the world, governments from South Korea to Singapore and China have spent billions trying to encourage people to have more children through subsidies, cash incentives, housing support and fertility programmes. But the outcomes have been mixed.

“No Asian country has successfully reversed a low fertility rate despite massive spending,” García-Herrero says. “South Korea poured hundreds of billions into incentives with almost no lasting effect.”

The reason, she argues, is that policymakers often misunderstand why people are having fewer children. “These programmes have largely failed because they treated low fertility as a financial problem rather than a structural and cultural one.”

In countries such as Japan and South Korea, marriage remains closely linked to traditional gender roles. Women continue to carry most childcare and domestic responsibilities, even when both partners work.

“Many young women and increasingly men, no longer see marriage as an attractive proposition,” García-Herrero says. “Women often face intense pressure to either give up or severely compromise their careers once they marry and have children.”

Sinha similarly argues that meaningful support requires more than one-off payments. “Free childcare. Free schooling. They have free healthcare,” she says of some European systems. “All these services, I think should anyway be there.”

The challenge, Sinha suggests, is not persuading people to have children through incentives but creating conditions that make parenthood compatible with modern life.

Sinha says, that means affordable childcare, better parental leave, flexible work arrangements and reducing the costs of housing and education.

For Gupta, it means rethinking expectations around work and caregiving. Even in households committed to equal parenting, she says, mothers still shoulder a disproportionate burden. “When you give birth, you are the one who’s basically going through pregnancy,” she says. “You are the one delivering the child. You are the one who has to breastfeed the child.”

After becoming a mother, she stepped away from her family’s business and began considering a new career path. “There’s definitely a sacrifice,” she says.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The remnants of Tropical Storm Arthur battered parts of the southeastern United States with drenching rains and strong wind on Thursday, tearing through buildings, flooding homes and launching water rescues along the Gulf Coast.

Severe weather also pummeled parts of the Midwest, where a separate line of strong storms knocked down structures and left tens of thousands of residents without power.

Arthur was the first tropical storm of the season in the Atlantic basin, and although it quickly downgraded within a day of forming, the lingering system created dangerous conditions in Louisiana and Mississippi. In one rural Louisiana parish, more than 2 feet of rain fell in 48 hours and most of that soaking came Thursday, said Donald Jones, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Lake Charles.

It flooded at least 200 homes in Avoyelles Parish, about 70 miles (113 kilometers) northwest of the state capital, Louisiana state Rep. Daryl Deshotel said.

“Even by this region’s standards, that’s catastrophic rain,” Jones said.

Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves said in a social media post Thursday night that a worker on a county road crew in the southwestern part of the state had been killed while helping with storm cleanup operations. The cause of the death was not disclosed.

Thirty homes below the Anchor Lake dam in southern Mississippi were being evacuated as a precaution due to concerns that rising waters could overwhelm the spillways and compromise the structure, Reeves said. Residents in the area were being encouraged to seek higher ground.

Coni Dubois said several inches of water flooded her home overnight in Houma, southwest of New Orleans, but others in the community had worse damage. She’s lived through many hurricanes and other storms, but never witnessed thunder and lightning like this.

“It was unbelievable, it literally sounded like hell broke open,” Dubois said. “I thought for sure we had a tornado on top of us. The lightning and the thunder was so consistent, the whole house was lit up like daylight for about 20 minutes.”

The National Guard and state wildlife officials were working with rescue crews, officials said.

New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno posted a video on Facebook describing relatively minor damage and cleanup efforts. Ahead of the storm, police prepared boats and set up barricades in flood-prone areas. They also opened sandbag distribution sites across Louisiana.

Just across the Mississippi River in Avondale, a tornado wrecked four homes, Jefferson Parish spokeswoman Rachel Strassel said. Two people were hospitalized with minor injuries and later released.

The Midwest was also dealing with damage after a strong line of storms.

A tornado was reported Wednesday evening near Effingham, Illinois, about 90 miles (145 kilometers) southeast of Springfield. Several people suffered minor injuries, officials said.

Firefighters responded to damaged homes, collapsed structures, car crashes, downed power lines, gas leaks and blocked roads, Effingham Fire Chief Brant Yochum said.

The National Weather Service in Lincoln, Illinois, confirmed two tornadoes, including one Wednesday with maximum winds of 116 mph (186.8 kph) in the Charleston area. The EF2 tornado lifted the roof off a home and flipped a semi-truck, injuring one person.

Marla Washburn and her husband, Todd, hunkered down in their basement as a suspected tornado tore through their neighborhood about 70 miles (110 kilometers) north in Blue Mound. They could hear debris smacking into their house and a school across the street lost its roof, which came crashing onto their home.

“The whole house shook,” Washburn said in a phone interview, adding that the neighborhood looks like Armageddon.

“You don’t know whether to laugh or cry, but we’re OK,” she said. “You look at it and you go, ‘I don’t even know where to start to clean up.’”

Clarke’s masterplan, so to speak, was playing Kieran Tierney ahead of Robertson on the left, two vastly experienced operators to deal with the threat of Hakimi and Brahim Diaz.

A risk, for sure. And so much for the thinking behind it. Just over a minute gone – Diaz assist, Ismael Saibari goal, the nightmare scenario come true.

The traffic cone guys weren’t letting such trifling issues dampen their day.

Everybody else had a haunted look about them, their noise and passion reduced to soft groans, the lusty pride they all displayed with another thumping rendition of Flower of Scotland now replaced with shrieks as Morocco ran amok.

Or threatened to run amok. Seventy seconds it took them to score. For much of the opening half they were like a cultured fighter, boxing the ears off an over-matched rival, bamboozling their punchbag with their movement before what felt like an inevitable knockout.

Scotland were on the ropes, covering up and praying that the punishment would stop. And minute by minute, it did.

Morocco’s intensity was wonderful for half an hour and they could have been two or three ahead by then, but they weren’t. They’re terrific footballers, very easy on the eye, but they’re not ruthless, not killers. Scotland’s resilience kept them in it.

When Morocco’s energy started to dissipate, it became a contest.

Scotland finished the opening half strongly, their confidence rising, those worried stares on the faces of their supporters giving way to blessed hope.

During his athletic peak, he dominated the summer skies like a soaring hawk, gliding effortlessly on air currents—a formidable green and gold predator claiming dominance over the Killarney and Croke Park airspace.

Kieran Donaghy may be approaching his mid-40s, but it appears even the passage of time cannot ground this iconic figure.

The 2006 Footballer of the Year once again takes centre stage as Kerry face Armagh in a monumental clash, set against the stunning backdrop of the Fitzgerald Stadium, with the towering “Black Stacks” and Reeks peaks framing the action.

Dubbed the Donaghy Derby, this decisive encounter between the two most recent All-Ireland champions sees the towering figure with his signature close-cropped haircut continuing to weave remarkable stories into one of the country’s most vibrant sporting sagas.

Kieran McGeeney, Armagh’s battle-hardened manager, recognises the significant threat posed by his 2024 Sam Maguire-winning colleague now wearing Kerry colours, reports the Irish Mirror.

“You can see the influence he’s having on them already. He has a lot of good friends in Armagh and he’s done a lot for us,” McGeeney noted earlier in the campaign.

What followed was a striking comparison, like a diver recounting an encounter with a great white: “I’m married to a Kerry woman, so I know this for an absolute fact – they don’t f**k about! They’re winners through and through.

“I don’t expect any favours [from Donaghy] if that’s what you are asking.”

Star by nickname and by nature, at his brightest in the rarefied air of elite competition, Donaghy’s ties to both of today’s sides run deep.

Two counties that occupy a special place in his affections, the first where he forged a Hall of Fame playing career, the second where he dedicated five years alongside McGeeney, forming relationships that affected him in ways he never anticipated.

Now returned to Kerry as a senior coach working alongside Jack O’Connor, Donaghy stands as one of the most intriguing personalities in Irish sport.

For someone who became the pantomime villain for opposition supporters during his playing days, his likeability is disarming. Reflective and candid, his affable manner cannot mask a fierce competitive drive.

Donaghy’s is a life powered by the jet fuel of ambition and enthusiasm.

O’Connor pursued him for the same reason McGeeney convinced him to undertake the ten-hour round trip between the island’s southern tip and a northern football stronghold.

Perhaps the words of Marc Ó Sé cut to the heart of it.

Ó Sé scaled All-Ireland Everest on the same rope as Gooch, Paul Galvin and Declan O’Sullivan, he had his brothers, Tomás and Darragh as fellow sherpas, yet it is Donaghy he distinguishes from Kerry’s golden era.

“My best team-mate bar none,” Ó Sé says, his words more eloquent and revealing than a thousand highlight reels.

The footballer with the combative edge who so frequently carried an entire county on those broad shoulders. Donaghy is far too focused, too committed for split allegiances to pose any threat, but if there was ever a moment when he might experience even the slightest hint of inner turmoil, today would be it.

Seventy minutes that will leave one of the All-Ireland contenders, one of the two sides that have defined his county football journey, defeated on the championship pitch.

Donaghy claimed four Celtic crosses as Kerry’s unmistakable figurehead, Gooch’s protective presence, a giant amongst men, a green and gold guardian constantly monitoring Colm Cooper’s vicinity for any emerging threats.

Simultaneously intelligent and confrontational, his verbal sparring matches during high summer, whether with Dublin’s Philly McMahon or The Sunday Game’s Joe Brolly, were compelling viewing.

He supported his words with football that combined strength and graceful skill, a genuine 24-carat leader, elevated by pressure, master of the big occasion, at his finest when his side needed him most.

While Donaghy was confrontational, he could also produce moments of exquisite brilliance, an artist who might, like Van Gogh, remove his or – more probably – his rival’s ear. He possessed the edge that distinguishes the elite competitors from the remainder of the pack.

It was precisely those attributes and his tactical understanding that, just as he was adapting to life as a television pundit, led to the career-altering unexpected phone call from McGeeney. What ensued were five of the most fulfilling years of Donaghy’s career, staying with the Fegan family in Tassagh and immersing himself so thoroughly in the local traditions that he became an expert on road bowls, a niche sport that commands fierce loyalty along Armagh’s country lanes.

Donaghy, someone always eager to push his boundaries, views his spell with the Orchard County as a period that delivered significant personal and emotional development.

He departed following Armagh’s stunning quarter-final demolition by Kerry 12 months ago, a result that marked a shift in the All-Ireland landscape.

With this afternoon’s match in mind, Donaghy’s parting remarks from that time bear repeating now.

“It’s hugely emotional [to be ending my time with Armagh]. You build up a bond with any group, but when you’re with a group for five years and see them go through so many tough times, it gets deeper.

“Obviously we had the glorious run last year, that saw them get the medal that they so desperately wanted and probably deserved with the work they put in.

“They’ve been great ambassadors for the county so it is difficult [to move on] when you’ve built that bond and relationship. And the county and the people of the county. It is a home away from home for me.”

A home he will attempt to dismantle this afternoon. There exists a profound psychological link between McGeeney, whose sharp wit and insight lie beneath a fierce and all-consuming drive to win, and Donaghy, a connection that reached deep into the latter’s Kerry roots.

Star is emphatic: “Geezer is one of a kind. His attention to detail, his focus is just solely on Armagh, never on himself.

“How can he get Armagh to be better, that’s what he talks about non-stop. The jersey and the people of the county and what it means. He is completely selfless.

“When he asked me to get involved, I already knew the way he carried himself. He was in the International Rules team with me.

“I knew how honest he was and how straight he was. There was no sugar-coating anything.

“I remember thinking, ‘he’d be brilliant to be around. I’d love to play for him or to work with him. I got so much from working with Armagh.’”.

As they did from him.

While Donaghy spent his summers at Croke Park throughout his playing career, his winters were devoted to the Tralee basketball court, the sport that captured his heart first and foremost.

Like numerous others who harboured basketball aspirations – Liam McHale, Jason Sherlock, Pat O’Shea, Sean Cavanagh, Mike Quirke – Star played a pivotal role in ushering Gaelic football into a fresh tactical era, incorporating screens, three-man-weaves and backdoor manoeuvres.

Now he aims to apply relentless pressure on the side he once steered to glory. Last year’s extraordinary All-Ireland quarter-final saw Kerry demolish Armagh with one of the most commanding third-quarter performances the sport has witnessed, a tempest conjured from nowhere.

In the build-up to that match, Darragh O’Se had penned a newspaper column that read almost like a eulogy for Kingdom football.

“In Kerry, there’s a sense of finality about the place this week. When it comes to football you can’t fool the people down here. you can’t be going around explaining the Meath defeat away because we were down a few bodies.

“Call us pessimistic or realistic, but whatever way you wan to look at it, the mood isn’t great.”

Whether the words of the six-time All-Ireland winner, a legendary figure in midfield, played any part in galvanising Kerry into action remains unclear. What cannot be disputed is the magnitude of the turnaround.

Drifting through the summer in a daze, Kerry suddenly awoke and became unstoppable, obliterating Armagh, Tyrone and Donegal consecutively by an aggregate margin of 24 points.

Donaghy’s final outing as an Armagh coach was engulfed by a Kerry onslaught. Today he will be amongst those attempting to conjure a repeat of that green and gold deluge, with Kerry having suffered two chastening encounters against Donegal in recent weeks.

When Kerry made the journey to Armagh for a league fixture in March, the enduring respect for all Star achieved in 2024, and for the manner in which he embedded himself within the Armagh community, was clear in the warmth of the welcome he received from the Athletic Ground hordes.

It struck a chord with Donaghy, though it never came close to undermining his allegiance. A remark he made that evening provided insight into the fierce competitive spirit that courses through him, the warrior mentality that lies at his heart.

“I spent five years travelling down that road. I made a lot of friends. But there wasn’t much chat or banter before hand, because I’m an all in guy and I was behind enemy lines.”

A hunting predator who had swapped his orange colours for green and gold, and who was once more hovering, his sole focus, as it will be in Killarney today, to command the territory.

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