O'Keeffe and Kilmacud establishing footholds

Mick O'Keeffe cracks a grin at the thought of Kilmacud Crokes as the soul of the suburbs, then tells it as it is with cheer in his voice.

"Well, Booterstown-Stillorgan couldn't exactly be described as the heartland of the GAA, to be honest, but we do try and build on community spirit, you know, coaching youngsters, getting people involved. Traditionally, we have always been competing against soccer and rugby, but the club has really established a firm foothold in south Dublin now," he said.

O'Keeffe epitomises Gaelic football's shining new breed, bright and articulate both on and off the pitch. Neither caught up in himself nor fazed by what he's caught up in. Against Tyrone on his debut in Parnell Park, he jinked his way to a couple of darling points, wooing the masses.

"I enjoyed it but it's early days yet. People had said to me that I might get the call with Dublin, but through the summer I was mostly concerned with Crokes winning the championship.

"Naturally, I love playing for Dublin and it's a good time to come in - guys like (Brian) Stynes and (Dessie) Farrell are still sort of stars in my eyes, but there are a lot of lads my own age, like Ray Cosgrove and Ciaran Whelan and that made it easy to settle in. But intercounty football is demanding, the game demands that you improve your game, which I'll be working to do."

This is a busy time, however. On Sunday, Kilmacud play Eire Og in the Leinster club final, a match which O'Keeffe describes as "perhaps the biggest biggest in the history of the club".

"Playing Eire Og means so much. I mean, people recall those Eire Og and O'Donovan Rossa games which were responsible for making the club championship the fashionable spectacle it is now and lads like the Haydens and Leo Turley would all be players known to us. It's a huge day for our club."

Crokes has been O'Keeffe's club since he was 11. When he was a child, the family lived in Newbridge and O'Keeffe hung around with the future stars of Sarsfields, including Enda Freaney and David Earley (Dermot's older brother). Still flicks through the papers for their results.

"It was a bit strange at first, uprooting, but with the football you always settle in fairly fast. Niall (his brother) started playing minor with Crokes so I automatically went along there and then. When I started secondary in Clonkeen, Don Twomey sort of swept all interested youngsters along there for training. It went from there."

So it did. By his mid teens, he could summon rare tricks from a football, one of those happy-go-lucky teenagers with talent dancing through their feet. Those times, he played more soccer than Gaelic and he took a few trips to Tottenham, Tranmere and Middlesbrough, who were most keen. When it came to it, O'Keeffe didn't bite.

"My Dad was keen I stay on, finish my education and play League of Ireland if I wanted. I suppose having just got my degree, it was the right thing. You know, I was playing with Stella Maris then and out of all the lads who went across the water, only Stephen Carr made it. It takes talent, luck . . . and even then, it's a gamble."

So he sat the Leaving Cert, bussed it over to UCD. In 1994, Crokes began an odyssey which finished with an All-Ireland club final win over Bellaghy the following March. O'Keeffe sat in Croke Park on St Patrick's Day, transfixed. A year later, they were dismissed in the club championship by St Sylvester's and O'Keeffe spent a summer in Boston kicking ball with Notre Dame, a seasonal assembly blooded on the building sites and based around Oak Square. Good days.

When he came back, Kilmacud's manager Robbie Kelleher began with fresh blood, and last summer O'Keeffe glimmered consistently for Kilmacud from the corner, dead-eyed and flawless in his free-taking. He just smiled when they said a Dublin senior shot was on the cards and continued studying at UCD and coaching the kids at Holly Park National School twice a week.

This Sunday, Mick O'Keeffe will go back "to the country", travelling the familiar route down to Newbridge, where he first kicked a ball and where Kilmacud will meet Eire Og. Back on old ground, bidding for a new time.