Paddy Keenan is the best player I’ve ever seen in a Louth shirt
Peter Fitzpatrick leads the plaudits for the Wee County ace
CUSACK Park was bathed in fine evening sunlight when the Louth players emerged for their first appearance of the summer. Some supporters had to shield their eyes from the sun as they looked twice at their team. But they weren’t mistaken. The players warmed up for their Leinster opener against Westmeath wearing their club jerseys.
While it has not been widely-trumpeted, the idea seems to have been the brain-child of Paddy Keenan. A simple gesture that reminded players of where they came from and whom they were representing against Westmeath – and every time they took to the field. Not just Louth, but their club, their parish.
‘I hadn’t heard that it was Paddy’s idea, but it wouldn’t surprise me,’ says St Patrick’s secretary Frank McCann. ‘That’s the type of fella he is, he’d be very aware of everyone he represents when he goes out for Louth.’
As a device to engender team spirit, it worked. In the closing stages Aidan O’Rourke’s charges struck for home once they sensed the home side were wilting. And while the precocious Ryan Burns, and his teenage kicks, hogged the headlines, it was Keenan that drove his side forward from midfield. Same as he ever has in the decade or so that he’s been the beating heart of Louth football.
If the Wee County are to repeat their heroic 2010 win over Kildare this afternoon, it will be to Keenan once again they will look. There’s probably no other county in the football Championship whose fortunes are so tied into a single player.
Keenan is at ease with the responsibility. He has been part of the Louth set-up since 2003 and came to terms a long time ago with the influence that comes with his exceptional footballing ability.
‘People say things like everything revolves around Paddy and Louth depend too much on him,’ says Peter Fitzpatrick, who first worked with Keenan back in 2003, when he brought St Patrick’s to their first county title. ‘But do Dublin depend too much on Bernard Brogan, Donegal on Michael Murphy? Paddy is a player of the same class and when you have a player of that class, you have to make the best use of him.
‘And 99 per cent of the time, Paddy delivers for Louth. And if a day happens when he mightn’t play up to his usual high standards, you don’t need to tell Paddy. He will be the first to know. Aside from being an exceptional footballer, he is a very honest footballer.’
KEENAN was only 18 when Fitzpatrick initially worked with him at Patrick’s. Despite his tender years, he was already a midfield linchpin for the club – having been instrumental in Dundalk Colleges claiming a Leinster Schools title the year before.
‘He didn’t turn 19 till that October, when we won the first county title in the club’s history. But you had no qualms about putting him in midfield, building a team around him. You could already see at that stage that he was a star in the making. He was just a tremendous athlete. He was a fine soccer player too, which people forget. He played for Dundalk youths at the same time, but over time, he focused more on the football. And we all have seen the results.’
Fitzpatrick observes that there would be evenings when Keenan could be found on the club pitch in Lordship on his own, practising his kicking. Such dedication is backed up by McCann, who can trace Keenan’s influence over the five Louth SFC titles the club has won in the past 11 years.
‘When we won the first, Paddy turned 19 that October and he kicked four points from play in the replay. There were games like that, over the years, when he just pulled the team over the line himself. He has had great players around him, like the Finnegans, but there have been plenty of days when Paddy has drove the team forward.’
Two weeks ago, Pat’s went down to Kilkerley for a Division One League game. The management team wanted to give Keenan an evening of rest after his recent exertions in Mullingar. ‘The boys said to Paddy to take the night off, given Louth were in the Championship the week before, but he didn’t want to. He just wanted to play football for the club,’ McCann says. ‘That’s the measure of him, he just wants to play football and it wouldn’t be in him to look for special treatment because of who he is.’
The summer of 2010, and referee Martin Sludden’s terrible error in awarding Joe Sheridan his lastminute goal, will scar the Louth football psyche for a long time but there was some succour at the end of that season when Keenan was justifiably named the county’s first All Star.
Typically, he had seemed almost embarrassed to be known as Louth’s first All Star, preferring to deflect attention towards his teammates.
‘There have been some serious players down the years in Louth that never came near an award because the team weren’t going well,’ Keenan pointed out to this newspaper in December 2010. ‘So while the award is great for my family and club, it goes back to the team.
‘It’s because I am surrounded by good players that I even got nominated. And I’d trade the All Star award tomorrow if it meant I’d win a Leinster medal with this team. If we win Leinster, we will be remembered forever.’
THAT ambition still drives him. Keenan has consistently voiced his belief that there are plenty of talented footballers in Louth and the only thing missing is belief. However, few are as talented as him. Fitzpatrick knows exactly where to place him in the pantheon of great Louth players.
‘I started playing with the county in 1980 and watched them for a few years before that.
‘So in 40 years of Louth football, I’d say he is the best player I have come across. And there are people watching Louth longer than that, who would say the same thing about Paddy. He is one of a kind. The total package.’
In Cusack Park last month, Keenan’s idea reminded his teammates where they came from.
Today against Kildare in Croke Park, by dint of his exceptional talent, he will remind them where he believes they can go.