Rising Cork football star Cian Kiely believes his background in basketball has helped him to become a better player.

The Ballincollig man played basketball for Cork and Munster as a teenager before concentrating on GAA.

"Basketball is definitely something that helped me, mainly for game-awareness," he told RTE ahead of the Rebels' McGrath Cup final against Clare.

"Peripheral vision and thinking two steps ahead is key in basketball and huge in football now as well.

"There are plenty of inter-county players who played basketball and I think what separates them from other footballers, aside from having good foot-work or high jumps, is their vision.

"They can see left and right while looking straight ahead and they know where someone is going to be and can put the ball into them. I think that's the biggest thing that can be learned from basketball."

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