‘It’s kind of hard to describe, it hasn’t really kicked in yet’

GOALKEEPER is a strange kind of a position.

To have a good game you sort of need things to be going wrong elsewhere. For a goalkeeper to shine he has to be given something to do and in an All Ireland club final that’s probably the last thing you want.

And, yet, for all that, Brendan Kealy embraced the chance to get stuck in. Embraced the chance to show just how good a goalkeeper he is. On any other day – were it not for Kevin McCarthy’s brilliant performance in other words – Kealy would have been in line for the man of the match award.

Yes, the Kilcummin captain was that good. His kick-outs were sublime – one in the second half into the chest of Kevin Gorman was breathtakingly good – while he pulled off three point-blank saves of the highest quality.

“I haven’t thought back on it yet,” he says when asked about his performance.

“But it’s good to be busy enough in a final to a certain extent to have made some contribution, but the lads were excellent when it looked like the game might have been slipping away from us there in the first half they managed to wrestle it back and Kevin [McCarthy] inside was phenomenal.

“We showed good composure there we had to do it at different times during the year and it’s something we would have worked on a bit not panicking, but the opposition put players behind the ball and things like that and trying to stay composed, but yeah it was important to go in at the break in control some bit.

“It kind of was enjoyable. You always enjoy playing in Croke Park because it’s where you want to play. It’s perfect conditions underfoot and everything. There were different patches

I didn’t enjoy so much. It’s nice to have some bit to do in a game.

You don’t just want to watch the ball sailing over the bar all day.”

As captain of the side it’s the third piece of major silverware he’s picked up in less than twelve months. Not a bad return at all with the latest undoubtedly the sweetest of the lot. “It’s kind of hard to describe, it hasn’t really kicked in yet,” he says.

“It feels kind of surreal at the moment being up there and looking down at everyone and looking at the stand after the game and you know all the faces looking back it you.

“There’s friends, there’s family members, there’s people who have flown in, there’s people back from America and different places and it means so much to all these people. “Sometimes when you’re a player your head is down all the time and you’re looking at the next training session and you’re in this sort of bubble and when the final whistle goes then and you look around and you see it’s a big deal for people around the place. It’s mad, you know?” Kilcummin will only have a few weeks to come down from this high and focus anew on the task at hand: a return to senior championship football. “Hopefully the momentum will last, obviously we’ll enjoy it and stuff, it’s about driving to the next level and that’ll be the time for that. When you have success is the time to build on it, not become complacent,” he says.