NO matter what happens in Portlaoise tomorrow afternoon, Miceal Rooney will be flying over to Liverpool in the days after – and the Kilcoo man’s only hope is that he will be making the return journey in another couple of weeks.
The talented 22-year-old is doing a PGCE at Edge Hill university in Liverpool and, having been on placement at St Patrick’s College in Downpatrick since November, will head back to Merseyside to resume his course once the dust has settled on the Magpies' All-Ireland semi-final clash with Munster champions St Finbarr’s.
Rooney will be back on home ground sooner rather than later if Kilcoo make it through to the final at Croke Park on February 12, though that is something he will work around if circumstances require.
“I’ve been lucky, I was able to come home and do my placement at Red High. Darren Swail, Declan Morgan, John Devlin and Dee Brennan, they look after me well and they help keep me grounded too.
“I feel like I’m accountable. I live with a couple of boys over there who play for other clubs in Down, but you just have to keep yourself going at this club. You can’t take your foot off the pedal at all.
“I did it for two months in September and October and I was still playing reasonably well, but it is tough when you’re missing out – you miss the boys and you miss the craic.”
And Rooney knows better than most just how ruthless it can be in Kilcoo.
In 2019 he was a regular fixture throughout the Down championship and started the first Ulster outing against Magherafelt. However, Rooney didn’t play again as the Magpies landed the Seamus MacFerran Cup for the first time and, despite coming off the bench in the All-Ireland semi-final win over Ballyboden, played no part in the final against Corofin.
That disappointment saw him take stock, and this year he has been one of Kilcoo’s to performers en route to tomorrow’s semi-final.
“At the time I probably was a wee bit huffy about it… I was still a wee bit young.
“Looking back on it I know myself I wasn’t good enough. There was boys playing better than me and that’s just the way it goes. If you’re not playing good enough there’s always boys there to take your position.
“That’s how I knew I had to go away and do a wee bit more. When we were in lockdown and people were happy enough to sit at home and indulge, I was out doing sharpness and running training.
“Looking at my own game I saw I wasn’t finishing runs off enough, I wasn’t confident in my own ability - maybe doubting whether I was good enough to play for Kilcoo. The older men, they talk to you, tell you you are good enough.
“Them men have seen it and done it, I’ve a huge amount of respect for them.”
And it is their strength in depth which has helped Mickey Moran’s men soar to new heights in recent years.
“The panel we have… the boys we have on the bench is scary sometimes. I’ve been on the B team many a time and we’d take great pleasure beating the boys starting on the A team.
“You want Kilcoo to do well but, at the end of the day, you want their position at the same time. It’s really healthy competition, the sets of brothers you have – myself and Chrissy, the Branagans, the Johnstons, it just gives that wee bit of an edge because you’d be falling out with them more often than not, but it’s good.
“We know what the end goal is at all times and we’re fighting for each other. If anything ever happens we be men about it – you shake hands and move on. You know it’s for the better of the team, or that man you maybe had a wee word with at training has your back the next match, all the boys along the line have our back.
“The environment around the team is just incredible. We’re all brothers. It’s a great team to play on, I would die for every single one of those boys.”
