The individual spotted 'spying' at Kerry's training session on Tuesday evening has been identified as a former club-mate of Donegal manager Jim McGuinness

The Irish Independent reports that 43-year-old Patrick Roarty - who now lives in Kilcummin - is from McGuinness's home town of Glenties and they played together for the local Naomh Conaill club.

Roarty was spotted by members of Kerry's backroom team hiding in a tree, trying to watch Eamonn Fitzmaurice's squad finalise preparations at Fitzgerald Stadium for tomorrow's All-Ireland final.

He ran off when a member of the backroom team went to confront him but left behind a piece of identification.

Friends of Mr Roarty's told the paper that he and the Donegal manager had attended each other's weddings and he is also heavily involved in the Donegal Association in Kerry.

After taking charge of the Kingdom two years Fitzmaurice ended the long-standing tradition of open training sessions in the county.

It didn't go down well with the Kerry public at the time but this episode highlights the lengths some teams are prepared to go to to get inside information.

Meanwhile, sources in the Donegal camp said they believe their training sessions were "observed" at least four times.

Each time people with camcorders drove off when challenged.

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