The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
Rooney goes out on top of the heap
John O’Dowd After four years Na Gaeil boss Donal Rooney achieved the ultimate before stepping away from the job
TALK about bowing out in the best possible way. Deep in the bowels of the Croke Park press room, Na Gaeil manager Donal Rooney was basking in the glory of guiding his team to a 21-point victory in the All-Ireland Club JFC Final, but it was also a bitter-sweet occasion for the Tralee side’s bainisteoir as he announced that he, and his management team of Richie Barrett, Kieran O’Shea, Niall O’Meara and Eoin Joy, were stepping down after four years at the helm.
The greatest period in a young club’s history, which saw Na Gaeil spend a season in the top flight of the Kerry County League, finally clinch the county junior title and ultimately end up with the All-Ireland title, had all been achieved under Rooney’s management. He can be immensely proud of his efforts.
“We are not continuing on with the group after today. There’s going to be a new person coming in. We have stepped down as a management team. We had decided a while ago that we were going to do that,” he said.
Why now?
“I have four young kids at home. We’ve all got four young kids, to be honest, myself and the two selectors. That’s a huge part of it.
“Whatever about the amount of hours you put into it, you don’t have any head space there. You’re going to bed thinking about it, you’re waking up thinking about it, you’re putting everything you have into it. You’re grumpy if things aren’t going well, you’re happy if things are going well. It’s a huge commitment. We’ve given it for four years.
“The lads now, I think it’s time for somebody else to bring them forward. There’s a huge opportunity for that group inside there, 100 per cent. I’m not saying they’re going to win the intermediate this year, but they certainly won’t be far away from it.
“We had five Kerry minors last year, there’s four of them available to play this year. If anyone is getting complacent, they only have to look over their shoulders at these lads coming up.
“I had made this decision, unmade this decision, made the decision again. Your heart would love for you to stay there and keep on going with it, but the head is just sort of saying that it’s time to go.
“I don’t want to make this about myself by any means because it’s about the lads and what they have done. We do it because we enjoy it, we’re all club men, everybody in our management group is a club man, and we’re just doing it because of Na Gaeil.”
Rooney admitted that he wasn’t happy with his side’s shot conversion rate in the first half and that the penalty goal scored by Rathgarogue / Cushinstown in the last action before the interval was an important wake-up call for Na Gaeil.
“Our first nine shots, we only converted three of them, so that obviously showed that little bit of nervousness. We were maybe picking the wrong options and stuff like that. After that penalty, we went in at half-time, and there certainly wasn’t any complacency there.
“We were only four points up, having absolutely dominated. We had 21 shots in the first half and I think they had six, and yet there was only four points in it. Thankfully, in the second half, we turned the screw and we
obviously kicked on.
“We tried to pick better options with our shots in the second half, that was the big thing. I just turned around to our stats fella at one point, and he said we had eight out of nine scored at the start of the second half, and that was a big difference.
“We were much more clinical.”
The Na Gaeil manager was also delighted that the work done on the training pitch to press the opposition kick-outs had yielded such a rich dividend in the biggest match in the club’s entire history.
“They got five of their first six kick-outs but then, after that, we kind of turned the screw after we intercepted one of them. We tried to do a bit of a press over the last number of months and it seems to have worked. We nearly got a goal out of it the last day, and we got a goal out of it today.
“We’ve been working on it, basically, since August I suppose. Sometimes it comes off, sometimes it doesn’t. It looks good when it comes off and you can keep a team penned in. It paid off today.”
With the game done and dusted after the scoring blitzkrieg produced by Na Gaeil in the opening 12 minutes of the second half, Rooney and his selectors had the luxury of actually enjoying the game’s final quarter. A far different proposition to what they had to go through in Ennis two weeks previously.
“It was far more enjoyable alright. You’re trying to get the lads on the field who deserve to be on the field. A lot of them deserved to start and they didn’t start today. There were some really tough decisions there. We wanted to get them on as early as possible and give them a taste of it.”
The last Na Gaeil substitute to come off the bench was veteran club stalwart, Paul Daly. At 43 years of age, what a fairytale way to probably finish off such a long career in the green and white.
“Yeah, he’s older than me! Paul has been an ever-present there. He never misses a training session, he always gives 100 per cent, and he deserved to come on more than anyone, so we’re delighted. And he scored a point, with that trusty left leg!”
The stuff of dreams for Daly. And for Rooney. And for Na Gaeil.
Sometimes it comes off, sometimes it doesn’t. It looks good when it comes off and you can keep a team penned in – Donal Rooney