SEAN OF A NEW ERA
Purcell thrilled he was persuaded to make Roscommon return
WHEN Fergal O’Donnell’s name flashed up on his phone towards the end of October, Sean Purcell knew what was coming. The appointment of O’Donnell and Kevin McStay as a joint management team had already created a welter of excitement within Roscommon and it was hard not to be caught up in that.
Purcell agreed to meet his former county manager for a coffee. It would be interesting to hear their plans for making progress with the Rossies and having won a Connacht medal under O’Donnell in 2010, Purcell figured he owed him that much.
But there was also apprehension. Purcell had been away from the inter-county scene for two years and he did wonder if he’d be able to immerse himself back into the grind.
He never felt that playing football for Roscommon was a hardship or anything like that, but it does consume a lot of time. And having tasted a little of life away from it, Purcell reckoned that it might be difficult to get back into it.
There were other considerations, too. He turned 30 last August and was building a life with Caitriona, his wife of two years. And last year he had opened a new business in Carrick-on-Shannon, Percy Whelan’s pub on the outskirts of town.
‘I enjoy playing football for my county, enjoy going to training for Roscommon, but after two years out and two years doing other things, it’s only natural to wonder if I could get back into it. It’s all go when you are a county footballer. It is pretty relentless. Your whole life revolves around it.’
Within a few minutes of meeting O’Donnell, he was convinced. ‘Well, Fergie can be very convincing!’ he says with a chuckle. ‘But there was the carrot of Division 1 football, there was the strides that Roscommon had made, all of that.
‘It is great to be a part of it, and the last few weeks, not just the wins in Killarney and Cork, but everything, there’s a really good buzz at training this week. Lads are in really good form. It is a great thing to be a part of it, at the moment.’
WITH the world in thrall to the extraordinary achievements of Leicester City this season, other sports are searching for their own version of the Foxes. It may be a little early to bestow such a title on Roscommon but being back in Division 1 after a 13-year absence, they have certainly made the GAA world sit up and take notice in the past few weeks, beating Kerry before going on to hammer Cork on their home patch.
The only cloud over Roscommon football at the moment is that the current state of the playing surface in the Hyde, and the restricted capacity in Kiltoom, means they have to play today’s home game in Longford. In a way, though, that’s a sign of how quickly Roscommon have climbed to where they now sit.
There was a school of thought that the Rossies would have benefitted more from another season of Division 2 football when they were promoted last year.
And that feeling was enhanced when Monaghan snaffled the points at the death in their first game. But since then, they have adjusted to life with the big boys. Rather than seem- in gout of place, they feel very comfortable in their company. ‘We weren’t worried about it,’ the Boyle native explains.
‘It is massive step-up and a massive learning curve but the only way you are going to improve is by playing these teams. Mistakes are punished much more severely in Division 1 and that is what we took from the Monaghan game. We were a point up going into injury-time and lost by four. That shows that we had something to learn.’
They proved to be fast learners. Within seven days, they had left Fitzgerald Stadium with Roscommon’s first competitive win in Kerry. They had to dig the game out, too. The naivete that cost them against Monaghan had vanished. Purcell made his return off the bench, a hamstring injury had hobbled him in the early part of the season, and he used all his experience to calm heads in the half-back line.
Purcell, or Roscommon, haven’t looked back since. He is at the centre of their defence for today’s game against Down in Pearse Park – and is likely to be a key part of the defence as the Westerners continue on their upward curve. No wonder he’s happy he let O’Donnell talk him into reviving his county career.
‘It was good to experience a bit of the world outside of a county squad. It definitely revitalised me and I have come back a hungrier, more motivated footballer which I hope will benefit Roscommon.’
Purcell didn’t leave because of a dressing-room bust-up. Nothing like that. In April 2014, he married Caitriona and had promised her that they would go travelling after their wedding. Following a honeymoon in St Lucia, the couple took in the sights of Chicago, travelled up and down both islands in New Zealand while also taking in Australia’s East Coast. After seven years immersed in the grind of county football, it felt a release to see a bit of the world.
When the newlyweds returned from their travels, Purcell was happy enough to be a Rossie supporter. He decided to play some soccer with Boyle Celtic to keep his fitness levels up, and enjoyed their run in the FAI Intermediate Cup all the way to the last 32.
It was a different type of buzz. It had none of the pressure of being a county footballer. He could make a mistake with Boyle Celtic and know that it wouldn’t be analysed across bars later that evening. Growing up in the old market town of Boyle, which has now found fame through Chris O’Dowd’s Moone Boy comedy series, soccer was always mainly Purcell’s game, primarily because he was pretty good at it. How good? Well, he captained the Ireland schoolboys side in 2003 (a team that also contained current international Stephen Ward and St Patrick’s Athletic goalkeeper Brendan Clarke).
Although there was constant rumours of trials in the UK, Purcell went to Sligo IT on a soccer scholarship and ended up captaining the Ireland team at the world university games in Izmir, Turkey in 2005. ‘That was some experience,’ he recalls now. ‘David Gillick, Derval O’Rourke and Paul Hession were all part of that team and it was great to be alongside them at the opening ceremony.’
So he wasn’t someone earmarked to be a county star from a young age. ‘I never played county minor. Played for the senior team before I played for Roscommon Under 21s,’ Purcell explains, almost with a hint of pride.
In 2005, while waiting for his contract to be renewed at Sligo Rovers, he was playing Gaelic football with a Boyle side that also included David Casey.
They won the Roscommon intermediate championship that year and went on a run through Connacht. Purcell’s performances in the halfback line were good enough to earn a call from John Maughan.
‘Yeah, it was Maughan who brought me into the Roscommon panel. I was only 20 at the time, had never played underage. He had just seen me play for Boyle in a few of the intermediate games. And that was that.’
There have been highs and lows with Roscommon, the 2010 Connacht title illustrating the potential within the county. But getting back to Division 1 had always been the plan. Purcell finds it hard to believe he had to think before accepting O’Donnell’s offer back in the winter.
The past few weeks have been a wonderful experience.
The buzz in the team bus, going to and from Killarney and Cork, was unforgettable and reminded him how much he missed it.
It also enhanced the sense that Roscommon are a team on the rise and Sean Purcell is just glad to be rising with them.