Football

Cargin's 'Peter Pan' Kieran Close still a vital cog in the Erin's Own wheel

Cargin's Kieran Close is still going strong at 40 Picture: Seamus Loughran
Cargin's Kieran Close is still going strong at 40 Picture: Seamus Loughran Cargin's Kieran Close is still going strong at 40 Picture: Seamus Loughran

WEARING number 17 on his back, Kieran Close was a surprise starter in Cargin’s semi-final encounter with arch rivals Creggan Kickhams at Dunsilly last month.

Championship starts are rare things for the veteran forward these days – but he was only too happy to step into the breach when it emerged there weren’t 60-plus minutes in Tomas McCann because of an ankle injury.

For the last four or five seasons, Close has contented himself with cameo appearances for Cargin’s seniors.

So McCann and Close swapped roles for the night. Close responded by running himself into the ground for 44 minutes before McCann was introduced and duly won the game with a brilliant left-footed score deep into stoppage-time of extra-time.

“Probably from the weekend before we realised Tomas’s ankle was a bit worse than we wanted it to be,” says Close.

“So I knew there was a small chance I may be needed and then it became clear on the Tuesday and the Thursday night I’d definitely be starting.

“I’m 40 now so when you get to my age and you get the chance to start a championship match against the current champions, it was something I was willing to embrace. I’m not the player I was 10 years ago and I don’t pretend to be, but I was definitely excited about it.”

All things being equal, Close will return to his cameo role in Sunday’s Antrim SFC final showdown with St Mary’s Aghagallon at Corrigan Park.

But, given Close’s championship interventions from the bench, ‘cameo’ probably doesn’t do justice to his significant contribution in Cargin's successes.

“In the club's three-in-a-row Kieran made interventions in every game,” says former boss Damian Cassidy, now with his home club Bellaghy.

After the decidedly dreadful 2019 county final affair between Cargin and Creggan, the two sides produced an absolute classic the following season – the year of COVID – at a sun-drenched Portglenone that required extra-time to separate them.

“In that 2020 county final, Kieran scored a goal at a critical time in the game and it really was the catalyst for us to go on and win it. I can see it yet – Jamie Gribbin slipping a pass to him and in typical style Kieran was cool and finished it off.”

Cassidy adds: “If I was chatting to any young players, Kieran Close would be the player I’d point them towards because there are so many that can only kick the ball in their fourth or fifth stride.

“It’s the point where they work themselves into a balanced position to kick it. Kieran was able to execute it in the third step and his accuracy was absolutely phenomenal. He is a really good example of what to do in your third step, whereas you see others taking much longer.”

Close is 40 now. He’s been playing senior football for 23 years. He’s won seven county championships. A joiner by trade, he’s married to Niamh and have three children, with another on the way.

Life is busy. So why keep playing? Simple. He still adds value to the team.

He never imagined himself to be still kicking ball for Cargin seniors at 40.

In fact, he tried to retire after St John’s denied them the chance of winning three-in-a-row in 2016.

It’s all Damian Cassidy’s fault that he went from being the proud owner of four championship winner’s medals to seven three years later.

Close never quite went through that torturous period in a player’s career where they go from being an automatic starter to regular substitute.

“To be honest, it kind of presented itself to me because in John Brennan’s last year we were beaten by St John’s [in the semi-finals] and we were going for three-in-a-row back then.

“My wife and I had a couple of babies brave and quickly and she was going back to work. I thought my career was over at that stage. Niamh’s a nurse, she works shifts and I was about 35 then and I just thought there was no way I could make the commitment to do anything with Cargin. It was when Damian came in that changed.

“The two of us came up with this plan and it was really a plan that Damian made for me to keep me playing.

“I wouldn’t be starting every match but at least he was able to call on me in the last 20 minutes of games. So Damian made that role for me and everything led on from that. And thankfully it led on to three more championships.”

Five years on from the pair meeting in The Elk, Close is preparing for another county final.

“You can be dogmatic about these things,” says Cassidy. “You can say: ‘This is what the plan is and everybody has to do it.’ At county level there’d be no compromise.

“But at club level there has to be a lot more compromise. Kieran proved himself on the championship stage so he wasn’t wasting your time or trying to bluff. So we came to an agreement and eventually he became involved later in the seasons and he built up his fitness. It was never a case of him being away from the pitch and not doing anything as he always looked after himself.”

In Cassidy’s second year, the former county ace forced his way into Cargin's starting line-up for the Ulster Club campaign. But the impact substitute's role was one Close came to love.

“The one thing I like about the role is at the beginning of these matches it’s almost like tactical warfare, a war of attrition, trying to break each other down, and this goes on for the whole of the first half, maybe into the 40-minute mark.

"But in a championship match somebody has to win it. What I find is in the last 15 or 20 minutes of a match, the game really starts to open up and it goes back to the time where I enjoyed playing so much - 10 or 15 years ago – that style of Gaelic football.

“It doesn’t happen every match but if a team is behind by a few points they have to take the shackles off and go for it. And when that happens holes are created. Damian Cassidy used to call me an old-fashioned forward and the role suits me.”

When Creggan finally toppled them in last year’s semi-finals, Cassidy left to return to his own club while Close thought it was time for him to bow out too.

Reserve team manager JC Devlin was at him to play a few games and a couple of his old Antrim buddies from the ‘Noughties’ roped him to play for the masters’ team, managed by Brian White.

Ronan Devlin, who'd stepped up to the manager's role, felt Close had still something to offer. There was at least one more encore in the fleet-footed corner-forward.

And so there he was, the “Peter Pan of Antrim football”, is how Cassidy describes him, running his heart out against Creggan in a county semi-final just a couple of weeks ago, knowing that he was probably paving the way for his team-mate Tomas McCann to come in and inflict some damage.

He doesn’t say when he’ll retire. When he does, though, there won’t be any fanfare as retirement statements aren’t his thing.

But he openly admits he worries over not playing football any more.

“Retiring is a difficult thing to summarise,” Close says.

“It does scare me a bit because it’s something I’ve devoted my whole adult life to, and my childhood too. I’ve been playing senior football since I was 17. That’s a long, long time and I’ve developed a great relationship with Cargin. I love the club.

“My kids now play for the club and they’re pushing me on to stay, they don’t want me to retire, they don’t understand why I have to retire.

“It does scare me a wee bit because of those friendships I’ve built over the years. I’ve seen it happen before: boys retire and they slip away and you don’t see them for a while. Those really close friendships you have start to slip away.

“One of the reasons why I’m still playing is because I really enjoy the social side of training, I enjoy the craic with the lads. If you win a championship you’d grab a beer with them afterwards. It’s all that. It’s not just the playing football, it’s the friendships...”

He adds: “I’m only one serious injury away from retirement. That’s been the case for many a year. It’s the same for a lot of people when they reach their 30s...

“I try and get to the physio a bit more than I used to. I wouldn’t mind my diet the way people might think you do because I’ve young kids in the house. My diet used to be impeccable but once the kids came along, you’ve less time, you’re eating at the wrong times. If the homeworks aren’t finished, there are baths and then you’re running off to training and having to fix yourself something at 10 or 11 at night.

“It’s important that you have support around you. I’m leaving the house three or four times a week at 40-years-of-age to go training. Niamh and my mum help out considerably. They are the support group behind me in order for me to still play.”

He was drafted into the Antrim panel by Mickey Culbert in 2005 and enjoyed seven or eight years wearing the saffron jersey.

He wishes he’d done more at county level, but there are plenty of archives to show just how intelligent a footballer he was, good enough to captain his county too.

He misses that era - before “tactical warfare” came along and infected Gaelic football right down to its grassroots. He would hate to be his 18-year-old self coming through the ranks now and fighting losing battles against muscular defensive screens.

“Whenever I started playing I went straight into corner-forward as a minor. You’d one competitor to beat and that was the man you were marking.

“You’d have a minor footballer back in the day hitting nine or 10 points a game but this style of football now strips you right down.

“I still enjoy the game, I enjoy the tactical warfare too and getting on top. You get your rewards in different ways now.”

Close has plenty to occupy himself in the days leading up to Sunday's final. Laying floors. The kids’ homeworks. Bath time. Running out of the house with his kitbag over this shoulder. Grabbing a late bite to eat, and doing it all over again the following day.

But amid the happy chaos of work and family life, the thought of playing some part in another county final for Cargin never leaves his head.

When – not if – the game opens up at Corrigan Park on Sunday afternoon, Cargin’s still impish corner-forward will be watching for Ronan Devlin’s nod.

Ready to cheat Father Time again. And living in the fullest sense.