Long runs the silver fox: McKeever gets his reward

GAA

As a pimply 15-year-old in 1999, a boy in a dressing-room of men, Mark McKeever won his first Senior Championship medal. When he looked around the benches in the bowels of Breffni Park, he’d have seen faces like those of Gavin Hartin, Fergal Hartin, Ciaran Brady, Laurence Brady, Sean Pierson, Kevin Madden, Gary Donohoe, Joe Brady, Terry Harten and Eamonn Madden. Hard men, great footballers in their primes.

Gowna beat Kingscourt that year. And when they won again in 2000, with McKeever starting at centre-forward, and in 2002, there was absolutely no doubt as to who the football kings of Cavan were. And in that royal court, McKeever was the prince.

At 18 years of age, he had picked up his third Senior Championship medal. But all empires eventually fall. The old soldiers hung up their guns. The seasons wore on and each year, the gap grew a little wider.

McKeever may have been the anointed one, may have already achieved more in his teens than some footballers do in a whole career, but Gowna were no longer contenders.

It took 20 years but on Sunday, McKeever finally added that fourth medal and, this time, he was the elder statesman and 17 sons of those 10 players from ’99 were on the panel. That’s the way of it with country clubs but Gowna, who share a tiny parish with Longford’s Mullinalaghta, are absolute masters of the art of regeneration.

“There is a lot of water under the bridge since then, a lot of tough battles, but it’s great to be back here and get over the line today. Obviously last year was a sort of a low point, we thought we were back and then obviously Ramor beat us on the day and rightly so,” the 38-year-old stated after the match.

“I think we were not going to be beaten today. The focus was there and from minute one, we got into the game and then we controlled it and pushed on from there.

“Killygarry are a fast breaking team, very young and have a load of exuberance about them. They’ll learn the same way that we learned from last year, they’ll come on for it. They’re after having a great year after probably a disappointing year last year so we weren’t taking anything for granted coming in.”

For years, Gowna struggled to stay relevant. There were ugly defeats, some relegation play-offs to be negotiated; in one, a 17-year-old Conor Madden kicked a 50-metre free to preserve their status.

But they knew the cavalry were coming, the clouds were clearing. So, McKeever, Ronan Bannon, Ray Keogh and Ger Pearson, young heroes in those turn-of-the-century wins, kept at it. Waiting for a sunny day.

Gowna lost the final in a replay against Ramor United last year but they were now so close they could almost taste it. It almost went awry this year but after a sticky period in the group stages, where they won just one game from four, and a come-from-behind draw with Cavan Gaels in the quarter-final, they hit their stride.

“I think we went in last year and, yes, there were a couple of boys who had played in county finals before but those couple of boys… they’re well on, they’ve nearly forgotten what it’s like to play in one, I think old age kicked in a little bit with us! We nearly forgot what it is or what we needed to do.

“In fairness, we were carried by the men back then in 2002 and out here today, we are being carried by their sons. It was lovely to be involved with this team because all you have to do is sit back and let the boys at it, the pace and power they have running. It’s a delight to see.”

Once a firebrand, an explosive, raven-haired force of nature up the wings, McKeever changed his game. The radio commentators now call him “the silver fox” and that draws a wry smile when he’s asked about it after the game.

On Sunday, he sat back and played a quarter-back role, putting out fires before they started and launching attacks. It was a job perfectly suited to a player with his nous.

“To be honest it’s not in the legs so I couldn’t go any further up the field!” he grinned, only half joking.

“When you have the pace and power of the boys in front of you, what’s the point in an old lad like me going forward? Let them at it. They turned the screw big time today and they kept driving and kept driving. It made my job an awful lot easier, all I had to do was find one of those guys and they were away again.”

Back at the turn of the century, the football world was his. Player of the Series in an U17 International Rules joust with the Auusies was a milestone ticked off; soon, he was fast-tracked into the Cavan senior team right out of minor and there he stayed for the guts of 15 years. But more medals eluded him; from 18 to 38, all he had to show for it were memories and bruises.

Did he think it would take so long? What do you think?

“Absolutely not. I started in ’99, we won the county final. In 2000 we won a county final, in 2001 we lost one, in 2002 we won one again. I thought this was just the way it was going to be, you were competing in county finals all the time.

“We got back to it in 2007 and then we didn’t feature in one till last year. We had a fairly barren spell and people forget, we had a lot of years there where we were fighting relegation.

“A lot of boys who are retired now kept us up at senior and kept the younger lads coming through playing at a higher level. I think that was very important for this group, we didn’t go down, we didn’t have to completely rebuild. We stuck it out.”

Never a truer word. And now, his reward has arrived at last.

In two years’ time, that team will party like it’s 1999 again when they are introduced to the crowd at half-time at the county final to mark 25 years since their win. There is every chance McKeever, though, will be absent; he’ll be in the dressing-room, togged out.

Another piece of history, maybe. Would you put it past him?