Goggins ‘blessed’ to be living his dream
Snooker means absolutely everything to world Under-21 champion of 1999
TWENTY-ONE years ago, Rodney Goggins was on top of the world.
In the October before the turn of the millennium, the Wexford man beat Rolf de Jong of the Netherlands 11-4 in the world Under-21 snooker championship final in Cairo, a reward for all the hours of hard graft he had put in on the green baize during his formative years in the 147 Club.
If you quickly browse through the list of players that lifted the trophy in the years before the Wexford man’s triumph, names like Ken Doherty, Peter Ebdon and Ronnie O’Sullivan jump off the page, stars who later went on to win the biggest prize of all at The Crucible, and Goggins could have been forgiven for believing that it was a springboard to almost guaranteed success.
Marco Fu, Ding Junhui and Neil Robertson also etched their names on the Under-21 roll of honour, before carving out glittering careers for themselves in the professional ranks.
Although Goggins did achieve his aim of gaining a place on the main tour, he never went on to hit those kind of heights, but though he’s somewhat hard on himself when assessing his career, he refreshingly doesn’t harbour any regrets, reflecting on matters with an almost self-deprecating humour.
‘They were great players. Obviously I would have been reading about those guys. I can remember getting Pot Black magazine when Doherty won the Under-21 in ‘89, he won it out in Iceland.
‘I read about Ebdon winning it in Australia in 1990 and then reading about this 15-year-old kid O’Sullivan in 1991, you just knew he was going to be special. Comparing myself to those lads, I would never put myself into that type of bracket,’ he said.
‘The main thing is doing it on the day. Isn’t that what all sport is about? You hear of club teams training well, but then when it comes down to the nitty-gritty on match day they might not perform.
‘The difference between the top lads and the journeymen is the mentality that allows them to do it on the day. I always felt I had a good mentality for it. I always felt like if I got beat I didn’t go into the doldrums and I went back to the practice table.
‘But there’s players that have talent and then there’s the gifted ones. The ones you see winning on the telly are the gifted ones. The fact is, I just wasn’t good enough for the pro game. Sorry for being so brutal on myself, but I just wasn’t,’ he said.
Goggins could be looked upon as a nearly man in the cut-throat world of professional sport, but he is a glass half full type of guy and is grateful to be one of the few that got the chance to pit his wits against the best in the world in his chosen field.
It’s not the winning, but the taking part, that counts, and for a player who gave his all, that old adage certainly rings true.
‘I failed as a professional, hands up. I only got to 71 in the world, but I loved it, I feckin loved it, and I still do. I have no regrets about what I did do and what I didn’t do. I still love the game.
‘I might have won a few more matches here and there but it just wasn’t to be. I did everything I think I possibly could. If anything, I’m a bit of an over-achiever.
‘I’m a massive sports fan and I got to play in my own sport as a professional. There’s very few fans that get to do that,’ he said.
For those of us looking in, to be ranked that high in the world is no mean feat and his achievements should be richly lauded, with the Goggins journey, which hit a few bumps along the way, really gathering speed with his big win in Egypt back in 1999.
Reflecting on his wonderful world Under-21 success, it’s clear it’s a memory he truly cherishes, a source of immense pride for himself, his family, and his county.
‘For me it was a dream that came true. It was a little bit like winning the lotto to win a world Under-21. I just went out and played. Looking back there was no pressure on me because I was maybe ranked third in Ireland in the Under-21s, behind T.J. Dowling and Robbie Murphy from Dublin.
‘The only pressure I had came from myself. There was was no one expecting any great things. I just played my matches and it all came right for me,’ he said.
‘I was on the road for three weeks, because it was a two-week tournament in Egypt and the previous week I was in Wales playing home internationals and the Pontins Open. I was very tournament sharp going out to Egypt.
‘Larry Codd started coaching me in May ‘99, and in September I went out to Egypt and won it. It just shows what a coach can do.’
The success in Egypt opened doors for a then 21-year-old Goggins, and he was really on top of his game during a whirlwind period, acquitting himself well in the world amateur championships in Papua New Guinea in 1999, before claiming his one and, so far, only Irish amateur title the following year, prompting a move across the Irish Sea to Leeds.
‘By winning the world Under-21s I got a wildcard to the world amateurs and I got to
the quarter-finals that year, so I was three matches away from doing the double. I got beaten by the winner but my game was in good shape. I was flying really,’ he said.
‘I won the Irish amateurs and that was a big thing. That was almost bigger than winning the world Under-21 because I honed my craft and that was the top tournament in Ireland.
ry, ‘I “I’m had thinking said to my about going to England”. dad and my coach Lart After winning the Irish amateurs, Larry said “You have to go Rodney, you have to test do yourself. in Ireland”. You’ve done everything you can
‘I think going to England added to me as a snooker player. Looking back, I’m glad I went to England when I did. People say I should have gone to England when I was younger, but I don’t think so because I hadn’t earned my stripes.
‘I would have been nothing more than a ballboy, and, to be honest, when I went over I was a ballboy for a few months. It took me a while, you’re dealing with a deeper pool of players,’ he said.
It took Goggins some time to find his feet in a competitive snooker world, but in typical fashion there’s no grumbling, more an appreciation of the path life had taken him on, although he does admit that he didn’t adapt to the new challenge quickly enough.
‘It took me four or five years to get a pro card, I was 26. I came through qualifying tournaments in Wales and, looking back now, I couldn’t have got a better snooker education.
‘I probably didn’t learn as quick as I possibly could have, though. I did learn, but it took ‘I was me like a little a sponge when I was a kid bit longer than it should. down in The 147 and you get to your level, but looking back I thought I probably didn’t do the same later on. It was probably detrimental to my game.
‘I lost my card and it took me two years to get back on the ur. I felt I was always to learning and I still feel I am learning the game. I feel like I’m still playing well.
‘I don’t know if I’m playing professional level, that’s another thing altogether, but I’m still playing a fair game,’ he said.
His second stint on the professional tour concluded in 2009, but it was by no means the end, with many more chapters of his snooker story to be written.
Every player growing up dreams of making a maximum break on a big stage, and Goggins did just that, registering a 147 on the way to a third-placed finish in the world amateur championships in Syria in 2010, a tournament he looks back on fondly, although how it finished was far from ideal.
‘That was one of my best-ever tournaments. I got to the semi-finals and that’s a tournament I’m very proud of. Not just because I got a 147, it’s because coming third in that was a great achievement.
‘One of the biggest anti-climaxes happened the next day, though. I got told I had to go out and play a third/fourth place play-off for a bronze medal.
‘After getting beaten in the semi-final, it’s the last you want to do. Knowing if you lose you’re not going to be on the podium. I was lucky enough to win the play-off but I was looking over at the other table and they were playing the world final.
‘That’s the biggest sickener I’ve ever had in snooker, but I played so well in that tournament,’ he said.
Goggins may have been in the thick of the action himself, but it’s only with the benefit of hindsight that he realises the sorry state snooker was in before promoter Barry Hearn came in and revolutionised the sport he loves.
‘It only recently hit me how bad the game was before Hearn took over. We only really had seven or eight tournaments. In the early 2000s the game was on its knees.
‘Maybe it was pure blindness on my part. I didn’t realise it at the time, but the game was in shit, up to its neck in it. What Barry Hearn has done for snooker, he’s a miracle worker.
‘It will never get back to what it was in the ‘80s, but it’s come a long way,’ he said.
However, Goggins is quick to admit that he would find it hard to thrive in the current climate, and would struggle to deal with the choc-a-block snooker calendar. In fact, he turned down the chance to have another crack at the professional game in 2010 after looking forensically at the pros and cons.
‘In 2010 the Irish Snooker Association put up a prize that the number one would get a pro card back on the main tour, and I finished number one. Barry Hearn had just taken it over earlier that year. I could see the way Hearn was going, he was going to absolutely fill up the calendar with tournaments.
‘That was a lot of travelling, the tournaments would be here, there and everywhere in Europe and China and all that. I actually reneged on my pro card.
‘I was working and I was doing my financial calculations and I was thinking to myself, I’d need 20 or 25 grand, which I didn’t have at the time.
‘Financially, I wouldn’t cope with the calendar now, but every so often I look at the snooker and I say to myself, “I’d love to go back”.
‘The realistic part of me says no, but the competitor in me says yeah, just for the challenge and the love of it,’ he said.
Goggins is enjoying an Indian summer, a renaissance of sorts, thanks to the brainchild of English man Jason Francis, who started a world Seniors’ snooker tour for players over the age of 40, and Rodney has grabbed the opportunity with both hands, sitting in second place in the current rankings, below fellow Irish player Michael Judge.
The Liam Mellows Park man has been enjoying both the social and competitive aspect of taking on his fellow golden-oldies, but there’s one recent result which still grates slightly, when he lost 3-2 to seven-time world champion Stephen Hendry in the quarter-final of the UK Seniors’ championship in Hull, a tournament Judge went on to win.
‘Hendry beat me on the black. I had my chance to beat him and I didn’t take it. In that match I probably showed why I didn’t do it as a professional.
‘I played alright. It may not be the Hendry of old that I was playing against, but I had a chance to put him away and I didn’t do it. That’s probably, in a nutshell, why it didn’t happen for me as a pro.
‘Okay, on another day I might have done it, but it highlighted a few things to me, it was kind of a slap in the face. Hendry is my hero, and I have great respect for him, but I do know it wasn’t the Hendry of old,’ he said.
It’s clear Goggins, who works for Equifax in Wexford town and travels to England to contest numerous qualifiers every year, hasn’t lost any of his appetite and passion for snooker and is thankful for everything the game has given him.
‘Looking back, I was very lucky with everything regarding snooker. I think I fell on my feet. I’m absolutely blessed that I came into snooker when I did.
‘When I came into the game, Wexford was at its height for snooker players. I was only a young lad, learning from all these guys.
‘Then when I went to Dublin, I didn’t live up there, but I went up and down practising. The Dublin lads were at the height of their careers: Fergal [O’Brien], Ken [Doherty], Mick Judge. Practising with those lads was amazing,’ said Goggins, who is keen to add to his solitary Irish amateur title, having finished as runner-up on another three occasions.
‘That’s probably one regret I do have, not winning that title more than once, but it’s a tough one to win.
‘The lads that win it are really good players. These things don’t get given to you.
‘I don’t look negatively at all on snooker, I just feel blessed the way things happened for me. I’m just a big fan.
‘I love snooker, I love playing it and I love talking about it.
I could talk about it night, noon and morning,’ he said.
Goggins speaks with such in-depth knowledge and passion for the game he adores, that there’s plenty only too happy to listen.