Lee Keegan
By John Harrington
Mayo star and Footballer of the Year, Lee Keegan, admits taking a year out of the game to go travelling is something he has thought about doing.
Ultimately, the reason he hasn’t done so yet is because he is so driven to win an All-Ireland title with Mayo.
Part of him is envious of Dublin players like Rory O’Carroll and Jack McCaffrey who stepped away from inter-county football this year to see a different part of the world and try a different lifestyle.
But he doesn’t think he’ll pack his suitcases himself until he has an All-Ireland medal in his back pocket.
“Of course, even from my partner point of view, She’d love to go traveling some time or maybe see a bit of the world in the summer - she’s a teacher,” says Keegan.
“And of course you always think of what the possibilities could have been if I hadn’t played Gaelic or I’d took a year out. You look at Rory O’Carroll, for instance, he’ll probably not come back next year either.
“He’s obviously off enjoying his life away from football. It’s easy for him because he has won three All-Ireland medals.
“Like, Jack McCaffrey, going off last year. Again, is he coming back next year - I don’t know.
“Of couse, of course, winning an All-Ireland influences a lot of things. I’d like to think myself I’d love to go off for a year and experience different things, just relax.”
No Rory O'Carroll for Dublin in 2016
Mayo experienced All-Ireland Final heartache for the third time in five years this year, but Keegan insists he remains as driven as ever despite those losses.
“We just want to achieve the ultimate goal, but it’s very easy me saying that, there is so much you have to do, to do it,” he says.
“There is a huge buzz out there as well. When you run out at Croke Park in front of 84,000 people there’s no better feeling in the world.
“The hairs are standing on the back of your neck - the atmosphere alone. I’d pay to watch a game like that, to be honest.
“It’s great and I am so lucky and blessed that we are able to compete at the level, year in, year out. Of course you’d love to see the different options around the world or do different things, but I suppose at the end of the day it’s our choice.
“We do it. I suppose we love it that much that we do come back every year.”
When Keegan looks ahead to Mayo’s 2017 campaign he does so with optimism because he believes they proved this year they’re on an upward curve under manager Stephen Rochford.
It took the newly appointed Rochford some time to put his stamp on the team and they certainly didn’t look like All-Ireland contenders when they were beaten by Galway in the Connacht semi-final, but from that low point they improved steadily with every match they played.
Stephen Rochford
Keegan is hopeful that trend will continue in 2017 now that the players are more familiar with what their manager wants from them.
“It was Stephen’s first year, so we were a bit slow out of the blocks between the League and getting beaten by Galway,” says Keegan.
“It’s not that there’s a trust thing, it’s just getting used to a new regime with Stephen. He obviously tried to implement different game plans and systems and things like that.
“So it took a bit of time. But I think we got there towards the end. I think next year, we have a lot of U-21s coming through. A young group of lads who make to make the senior team.
“So it’s probably going to start off on a more positive note because we know what Stephen brings to the game now.
“To win an All-Ireland, you have to change something. And we haven’t won it yet. So we had to change something or tweak something.
“The lads tried different things. And of course, there is some resistance there because we’re so used to following the same system year-in, year-out.
“But I think we got there eventually. Even if there is more scope to improve. I think we’ll open up more to what Stephen wants us to do next year.
“Hopefully that will bring a bit more trust. A few more victories.”
Not only have Mayo contested and lost three of the last five All-Ireland Finals, they’ve also reached the All-Ireland semi-finals for six years running.
Many of the current panel were involved in all six campaigns, and you have to wonder how much longer they can keep going to the well and coming back with water.
Lee Keegan has been named as the 2016 Footballer of the Year.
Those campaigns have been psychologically as well as physically draining, and Keegan admits it can be tough to keep going when you suffer serial disappointments in the Championship.
“Yeah, it is. And it's not getting easier, to be honest, the way the game has evolved. It's getting very difficult to be honest. Even the League has got so competitive that it's so hard to sustain and keep your body in shape and keep motivated and go back to your club. It's very hard to look after yourself for ten months of the year.
“You don't get much of a life outside it, to be honest, between work and play and sport. That's all you have, like. I suppose we're lucky that we have an ambitious group of lads that are trying to succeed.
“But it does take its toll on bodies, again, we've a couple of lads that are a bit older. We've the likes of Alan Dillon, David Clarke, Andy Moran, Keith Higgins, even. These lads are in their thirties now. I'm not saying that's old, but they've been around 10, 12, 13, 14 years now. Which is big mileage on their clocks.
“Of course it's hard to motivated lads. But, as I said, they wouldn't come back if they didn't think they were going to win a medal. That shows the character they have.
“But I'm not here to get character awards. I'm here to win medals. That's the only reason I come back every year, to win that main medal.”
Lee Keegan was speaking at the launch of the launch of the 2016 GAA/GPA Opel All-Stars jersey, which will continue to support the Childhood Cancer Foundation.
