Keane the 'keeper who came in from the cold

For most of the Galway players, yesterday's All-Ireland winners' celebrations came with a sense of dΘjα vu. Except for goalkeeper Alan Keane. In a sense he was still getting used just to being a part of the team.

At the start of the summer, the name Alan Keane didn't seem anywhere near the Galway starting 15. Then came the call from John O'Mahony, out of the blue, and so started the fairytale.

"Well I was working down in Cork at the time," he recalled yesterday at Galway's celebrations at the Citywest hotel. "John rang me on the Monday afternoon, just after the Leitrim game, and asked me to come and start training with them."

Keane had absolutely no background in intercounty football. At any age. "No, it was a big surprise. I had played a little bit as a minor, but only at challenge level. So it's a bit of a Roy of the Rovers job."

At 24, "one county SFC" is the sole honour listed in his team profile. Winning the championship title with Killererin in 1999 was the high point in his career, and the fear must have been that his chance to play with the county had passed him by.

"I thought I would have got a look-in after 1999 but it didn't seem to happen that way. But I'll take this now instead."

Part of the credit he gives to former goalkeeper Martin McNamara and current number two Padraig Lally: "The three of us had worked hard all year, and the three of us were in tears after the match. So something must have worked.

"John O'Mahony has also been amazing. It's unreal for sure the amount of background work that has to go in. And all the preparation. But it's the smallest things as well that he looks after. So it's been a great season. Four games in Croke Park this summer and unbeaten there as well."

No sooner had Keane joined the panel than he stared into defeat and the need for a sudden revival: "Well there was a fierce hunger there after we got beaten by Roscommon. We came back together the following week and decided we were either going to put it in or we weren't. We just put the shoulder to the wheel and that got us here."

The pressure of facing a penalty added drama to Sunday's game, but in the end Trevor Giles let him off the hook. "It was hard luck to Trevor and we were lucky that we got a quick point after the kick-out and that brought it to six. If they had got the goal they would have been back to two. So we got the rub of the green there which the hurlers didn't get."

GAA president Seβn McCague yesterday introduced four players in the GAA's Hall of Fame - Mayo's Padraic Carney, Kerry's Jack O'Shea, Wexford's Nicky Rackard and Kilkenny's Frank Cummins.

Better known as the Flying Doctor, Carney helped Mayo to All-Ireland football titles in 1950 and '51. O'Shea was a seven-time All-Ireland winner with Kerry. The late Rackard was part of Wexford's All-Ireland wins in 1955 and 1956 and Cummins retired from the game with eight All- Ireland medals.