Life of Brian has come full circle in a decade

N a 25-minute conversation with Brian Looney one word seems to crop up more than any other: appreciate. He’s 29 years of age now and Looney appreciates a lot. He appreciates that he’s had ten years as a regular starter on the most successful Dr Crokes team ever. He appreciates the medals and titles that have come his way. He appreciates that as a 19-year old he experienced what the vast majority of club footballers never will - playing in an All-Ireland Club final in Croke Park on St Patrick’s Day. And most of all he appreciates that a decade later he has a second opportunity to grace Croke Park on March 17 and, crucially, to atone for that lost opportunity in 2007.

It’s an irrelevant technicality to say Dr Crokes and Looney didn’t lose that 2007 All-Ireland Final in Croke Park. They drew with Crossmaglen on St Patrick’s Day but a fortnight later they lost the replay in Portloaise. Looney scored two points in the drawn match but, like most of his team mates, came up blank in O’Moore Park as Dr Crokes were outplayed by a wily Crossmaglen team still in their pomp. A decade on and Looney is philosophical when he reflects on his experience in 2007, which is understandably framed by this week’s return to GAA HQ for his and the team’s shot at redemption.

“It’s a fantastic feeling to be in an All-Ireland final. It’s ten years since I was last there. It’s a long time and it feels like a long time seeing as ’07 was the back end of my first full year as a Crokes senior,” he reflects. “To get to an All-Ireland final then was fantastic. Obviously it was fierce disappointing not to win it out in the end but even though I was a young age I definitely felt the buzz of it.

“We hadn’t actually won a county title at that stage even though we had gone that far. We lost to South Kerry the year before so went forward as the best club. We hadn’t won a county title in seven years at that stage and it would take another three years before we would win it. That was our sole focus around that time and we obviously couldn’t look any further than Kerry until we won a county championship, but at the back of your mind, having experienced what an All-Ireland Club final was like, you certainly wanted to get back there and give yourself the opportunity to win it. “I was probably naive at the time but having experienced it at 19 I was certainly looking forward to getting back there. And at the time I was probably too young to appreciate how difficult it is to get there. But I certainly wasn’t long realising that after a couple of barren years. It took us three years to actually win the county title after that. We had a young core to the team but certainly for most teams it can be a once in a lifetime chance to get there. I feel very blessed and fortunate that we have a second opportunity, it may be my last, who knows. If it’s another ten years I don’t think I’ll still be kicking around the place. It’s about soaking it up and appreciating the sense of achievement in getting there but at the end of the day if you don’t go and perform anywhere near your best or get the win on the day it won’t make it all worthwhile. Just getting to the final is no good to us.” Looney was just 23 years of age when he captained his club to a county championship title in 2010 which, a little surprisingly given that All-Ireland final appearance in ’07, was the club’s first since 2000. If the adage of losing one to win one is true, it certainly applied to Looney who lost out to South Kerry in the 2006 and 2009 county finals before winning the first of five county championship medals.” If you take it as a whole, the last ten years since we last got to an All-Ireland Final, we lost three county finals [he included the 2005 defeat to South Kerry] before we won a county final after that. We lost a Munster final and then we lost three Al-Ireland semi-finals. In the space of ten years that’s a lot of big heavy defeats and tough ones to take,” Looney says. “In between obviously there was a lot of success as well, which helped to drive us on and keep us motivated, but I suppose the losses would have driven us just as much. You see the effort that is put into to win a county title, not alone the extra effort required to win a provincial title and then the huge effort that goes into preparing for an All-Ireland semi-final. Those losses have certainly driven us and we’d like to think that the experience gained from them have actually helped contribute to us reaching the final this year. As a group we’ve set out our goals, you know, one match at a time from the start of the year. It’s great to have gotten over that semi-final but it’s tunnel vision for Paddy’s Day to meet that challenge.”

Ten years changes a man and changes a footballer. A decade ago Looney was whippet thin, fast as a hare and understandably lacking a little fortitude in certain situations on the football field. Ten years on there’s still more meat on a butcher’s knife than on the 29-year old bank official, and while the speed might have dipped a kph or two, he’s matured and developed and hardened as a footballer.

“It’s hard to look at yourself and see or know how you’ve changed but I suppose the older you get the more appreciative you are for it and possibly the more hungry you are for it when you realise how difficult these things are to achieve and you’re a bit more mature,” he says. “You can appreciate a county title a bit more having gone through losing for a few years. You can appreciate a Munster title for what it is, and certainly you can appreciate getting to an All-Ireland final.

“When you get more mature, and given the way the game has gone, you do get to know how to mind the body a bit more, how to prepare for games better and stuff like that. Footballing wise you’re going to naturally develop over the years on the skill basis, and playing in different set-ups you’re going to adapt to them, and just develop as a player and a person. Then in relation to preparing for big matches, and in my mind-set, I’d like to think I’ve got better.”

What about going from wide-eyed teenager to an 11-year veteran of the team?

“It’s hard to pin-point when that happens exactly. The core of the group and a lot of the team has been around together for a number of years. In order for us to get where we are we all have to naturally become leaders and bring new players into the group. We have leaders out there who are 22 or 23 years of age. It’s all about just doing your bit for the team and working your socks off. You’ve plenty of fellas who say their bit and different people that it on board. I don’t think it’s something many people intentionally do, it’s just if there’s something needs to be said in the dressing room or if you spot something that a player can improve on then we’re open enough that it can be said. We’re all good enough friends and know each other well enough now that even if there’s something that he doesn’t want to hear that can be said too.”

Looney works as a bank official in Killorglin and lives a stone’s throw from the Dr Crokes GAA complex in Lewis Road. He has been, by brought consensus, one of the outstanding club footballers in Kerry for much of the past decade. Certainly his performances in the Crokes four-in-a-row county title winning side (2010-13) saw him pick up several man of the match accolades and unsurprisingly a call up to the Kerry senior football training panel came his way.

A Kerry minor in 2004 and 2005, he eventually made his way onto the Kerry Under-21 team in 2008, making five appearances on the team that won the county’s last All-Ireland title at that age grade. In fact, in the All-Ireland final win over Kildare in Thurles, Looney came on as a substitute to replace his club mate Johnny Buckley.

Incidentally, Kerry team mates that day included Mike Moloney, Kieran O’Leary and Buckley, all of whom Looney will line out alongside on Friday against Slaughtneil.

Another club mate, Jamie Doolan, was a used sub against Kildare and will be among the Crokes substitues in Croke Park on Friday.

Alan O’Sullivan, who played midfield for the Kerry U-21s that year, was a Tuosist club man back then but he has since established himself as a central player in every sense on this Dr Crokes team.

In 2010 Looney got a Kerry call-up from Jack O’Connor but his senior inter-county career didn’t amount to anything beyond a couple of McGrath Cup appearances and a substitute cameo against Mayo in the National League.

Seven years on he is totally at ease with how that side of his career played out.

“A small bit of training and a small bit of League time. One or two League games as a substitute,” he says. “I got my couple of opportunities but maybe timing wise it didn’t work out or whatever but I certainly don’t have any regrets in relation to it.

“I suppose the fact that I get to play my club football with a club like Dr Crokes and the campaigns we’ve had and the level of professionalism in the club, it’s kind of got a county team feel to it. That’s a long time ago, the Kerry thing. Gave it a go, it didn’t work out for different reasons but I’ve certainly no regrets and it’s not on my radar at the moment.

“When I got my opportunity I probably didn’t play as good a football. The opportunities probably came off the back of long campaigns with the Crokes, I picked up a couple of injuries with them early doors too. I’d look back at it though and I wo sons succ at th fella’ that as m with poss be h but gam a ma more wasn

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