Their paths may cross tomorrow. Mark Keane will be with Ballygiblin, as they take on Mooncoin in the AIB All-Ireland junior club hurling final. In a way that he doesn’t find altogether comfortable, Keane is best known for producing the thunderbolt goal that eliminated Kerry in the 2020 Munster semi-final.
At that time he was on the books of AFL club Collingwood, for whom he made senior appearances. As such his feat resonated in Melbourne. Although he went back afterwards, a year later he decided that he had had enough and wanted to discontinue his career in Australia.
Counterintuitively, his sporting reconnection has been with the county hurlers and not the footballers. This arose from his role at centre back for Ballygiblin as they marched through Cork and Munster into this weekend’s final. He was added to Kieran Kingston’s senior panel.
The familiar face he may encounter is Kingston’s predecessor John Meyler, whose long career taking teams brings him to Croke Park for the intermediate final. He’s in charge of Kilmoyley, the Kerry champions. No stranger to hurling in the county, Meyler managed Kerry to a rare championship win in 1993 when they beat Waterford.
“I’ve a Munster medal and All-Ireland medal in hurling from U-15 and U-16 under John Meyler,” says Keane at a sponsors’ event.
He had also been in touch with him as senior hurling manager before being signed by Collingwood in 2018.
“I suppose I had been speaking to them beforehand a small bit. I remember when John Meyler was there as well, as the manager, I was speaking to him. That was just before I went to Australia. It was kind of an emerging talent [group] they had coming through there. They had a few players coming through and I was kind of asked into that.”
Familiar pairing
This year’s junior All-Ireland final is a familiar pairing.
Cork and Kilkenny dominate the junior grade. Between them they have 14 All-Irelands, the Leinster county leading the way with nine. Curiously, though, there have been six finals between the champions of Cork and Kilkenny, and the former lead the head-to-head 4-2. The most recent final in 2020 saw Conahy Shamrocks defeat Russell Rovers.
The intermediate final is completely different. It pits Kilmoyley against Naas – only the third time the finalists have both come from counties outside Division One. It is also a first for Kerry and Kildare clubs.
Meyler says that when he asked what the club was most looking forward to, the answer was seeing the club name on a Croke Park dressingroom door and up on the scoreboard.
Keane reveals – maybe surprisingly – that he hasn’t played at the stadium himself.
“I haven’t, no. Only two fellas on the Ballygiblin team have: Colin English and Sean O’Sullivan. Colin was with Tipp minors football and hurling and U-21. I think Sean O’Sullivan was with Cork minor footballers.”
English won an All-Ireland at U-21 with Tipp. He and O’Sullivan have been to the fore in scoring goals on Ballygiblin’s run to the final, bagging two each in the most recent matches, the All-Ireland semi-final and Munster final.
Intercounty hurling
Keane plays football with Mitchelstown, Ballygiblin’s parish affiliate, who have lost the last two intermediate county finals. He has decided, however, to go with intercounty hurling this season.
“It is going well at the minute with Ballygiblin and I played well against Tipperary with Cork [challenge] last week. I still have a load of work to do to get myself up to senior intercounty level and I am doing a lot of work with the senior hurling at the moment as well.
“I am not just playing with Ballygiblin, I am in with the senior hurlers, training with them and doing a lot of work to get my game up to where it should be. Hopefully when April comes it will be top notch.”
Looking back on his couple of years away, Keane says that he definitely benefited from the experience.
“I was more mature coming back. I feel like I know how to manage my body a lot better playing sport, what to eat, when to do the gym, around fitness and what kind of running has to be done to be ready to peak come the right time.
“I don’t want to be remembered for the goal against Kerry. I want to be remembered for other things: playing AFL, playing Cork hurling and playing Cork football, helping Ballygiblin get to an All-Ireland final and hopefully getting Mitchelstown to another county final this year.”
