Football

Mooney hopes to shine for Down after Aussie Rules stint

Down's Caolan Mooney and Donegal's Patrick McBrearty will go head to head on Saturday night at Pairc Esler in the opening round of Division One games at 7pm which will be shown on Setanta Sports 1. Throughout the course of the competition, Setanta Sports will bring 17 exclusively live games to viewers across Ireland.
Down's Caolan Mooney and Donegal's Patrick McBrearty will go head to head on Saturday night at Pairc Esler in the opening round of Division One games at 7pm which will be shown on Setanta Sports 1. Throughout the course of the competition, Setanta Down's Caolan Mooney and Donegal's Patrick McBrearty will go head to head on Saturday night at Pairc Esler in the opening round of Division One games at 7pm which will be shown on Setanta Sports 1. Throughout the course of the competition, Setanta Sports will bring 17 exclusively live games to viewers across Ireland.

CAOLAN Mooney was glad to get out of Aussie Rules. He says he doesn’t “rate the sport”, but from the moment his feet hit Irish tarmac a lot was expected of him.

Down fans hoped for a return similar to what his former Collingwood colleague Marty Clarke had produced five years previously. But while Clarke fitted into a Down side that had quality players like Danny Hughes and Benny Coulter at their peak Mooney didn’t have that luxury.

Plus he returned home injured and though he did what he could for three teams, he was never able to find his best form and as the year wore on his body began begging for mercy.

“I told Collingwood I was leaving and then it was another two week before I flew home and it was another three weeks before I could start running,” he stated.


“All-in-all I was seven or eight weeks out and I could do absolutely nothing.

“Then I came back into the Down panel, I was playing for Rostrevor U21s and I was playing for Jordanstown. My body just couldn’t keep up and then the hamstring went and it went again against Roscommon.

“Once that happened I was trying to catch-up to the fitness of the boys who were training all year and I was getting very frustrated because I wanted to do well, but I was playing at maybe 50-60 per cent.”

Getting signed by Collingwood sounded like every schoolboy’s dream-come-true. Mooney was just out of St Colman’s when he joined the Melbourne club in the rookie draft. But he was glad to get away in the end.

“It wasn’t difficult to come home,” explained Mooney, who now works as a barman in Belfast restaurant Villa Italia.

“I didn’t like Aussie Rules, I don’t rate the sport. I wouldn’t say to anyone not to go and experience it because people take to it differently, but I went when I was coming out of school and to get the chance to go and be a professional athlete… I don’t think too many boys would have said ‘no’.

“As I got a bit older I realised it’s not all-that, it’s not everything in life and I just didn’t enjoy it so I decided to come back.

“There’s more skill in Gaelic football and there’s more co-ordination too – I don’t think there’d be too many boys in Aussie Rules able to run at full speed and take toe-taps.

“To be fair, the bouncing in Aussie Rules is quite hard too – if you muck that up the ball could be 10 metres behind you and you wouldn’t even know – but I think Gaelic football is a lot more skilful and I’d easily say I’d prefer to play football over Aussie Rules.”

A frustrating 2015 is behind him now and the season ahead promises one challenge after another starting with Donegal tonight. Mooney played in the full-forward line against the Tir Chonaill outfit in the McKenna Cup, but would prefer a deeper role in future.

“I’ve got the full pre-season under my belt,” he said.

“Things were going well but I got a viral infection just before Christmas so I couldn’t do much over Christmas and I was very flat-footed against Donegal and I didn’t feel myself. But I’m coming back into the form I was playing in pre-season and hopefully I can bring it on on Saturday night.

“You’re playing against the pinnacle teams in Ireland at the minute and you’re only going to learn from that – you can only put your best foot forward and if that’s not good enough you have to go back to the drawing board.

“You take the experiences and learn from playing against the best teams.

“Last year Derry got relegated and their Championship form was good – they pushed Donegal the whole way in the Ulster semi-final.

“Tyrone were relegated and they were being written off after their League but they put the hard yards in and got to an All-Ireland semi-final.”

Eamonn Burns (inset) is already Mooney’s third senior manager at county level. As a player the red and black jersey brought the best out of the Down boss and he’ll hope to inspire Mooney and the other young talents in his squad to prove their doubters wrong.

“He has freshened the squad up and he has given boys from different divisions their chances,” he said.

“There’s boys from divisions one, two and three playing this year. He has given the boys the chance to prove their worth and they’re pushing the boys that have been regular starters. That’s a healthy situation to be in.”

Tonight Down will get a thorough examination from Donegal and Mooney says they’ll need the fans in Newry to get behind them since home form will be crucial to the side’s survival chances.

“There’s definitely a lot of pressure,” he said.

“But you want to be making your home pitch your fortress, you want to be putting a marker down so team know that if they’re coming to Newry they’re in for a tough night. We want to start with a win on Saturday night to give the fans something to get excited about. They always do their bit to get behind us.”