Number one son makes a prodigal return

Ian O'Riordan talks Alan Keane, the goalkeeper on the 2001 All-Ireland winning Galway team who has regained his place in the side and is aiming to bring league success to the county after a gap of 23 years

Two months ago and with remarkably little fanfare Alan Keane regained the number one jersey on the Galway football team, and Sunday's National League final in Croke Park is the perfect opportunity to make sure he keeps it.

Another display proving he is a safe pair of hands and chances are he can think about starting in goals for the championship.

For all of last summer, Keane shared the net-keeping duties with Brian Donoghue, with the latter gaining the slight preference. When Donoghue was then named in goal for the first three rounds of the National League it appeared that Keane - the number one in the 2001 All-Ireland team - appeared destined to be the second choice. Then fate intervened, and when Donoghue retired through injury at half-time in the league match against Limerick, Keane got his recall.

"That was my chance to get my foot back in the door," he says, "and of course you have to take full advantage of that.

"Things have gone quite well since the Limerick game and like anyone on the team the focus now is to try to keep that place."

Sunday's meeting with Kerry is the ideal stage for any Galway player looking to demonstrate their form ahead of the championship. Donoghue is fit again and waiting in the shadows but this is also the time when manager John O'Mahony is thinking about his championship line-up.

Clearly then, the Galway players won't be short of motivation. And despite requiring a replay to get past Tyrone, the prospect of playing their third hard game in as many weeks is not something Keane feels the team is worried about.

"Well no, I think we'll be up for up. We actually didn't do much between the two Tyrone games, just a session in the swimming pool and things like that. And every footballer wants to play games. Otherwise they're just training, and the games will always bring you on more than the training.

"So I think we're all very focused and looking forward to Sunday. We know we've a big job at hand but hopefully, we can get there.

"Of course the focal point of the season is always the start of the championship, six weeks down the line for us. But the league is still the second biggest title in football, so you don't want to miss the opportunity having come this far."

Another motivating factor for Galway is the fact that the county has been without a league title since 1981 - "too long", says Keane.

"This panel has all sorts of titles between club and championship but we don't have this one.

"And I don't think we've lost any of our hunger. A fair few young lads have come in now, like Kieran Fitzgerald, and Michael Meehan. Others like Matthew Clancy are still in their early 20s. All those players have plenty of miles left in the engine yet."

He also feels that both Galway and Kerry would view winning the league as a positive factor in terms of their ultimate quest to win the championship.

"I suppose our names have always been in the hat for the championship these past few years, but doing well in the league means a lot now. Tyrone won the last two, so it's not the banshee it was to win the league and then go out of the championship."

It seems also that most of Galway's old confidence has been restored by the nature of their victory over Tyrone. That result also helped put further distance between management and players and the nightmare of the heavy league defeat handed down by Wexford in March.

"Sure it haunted me for a long while. I bent the back five times that day, which no goalkeeper will forget. But we've put it down as one of those bad days every team will endure once in while. And in a way we feel we've got it out of our system for the year.

"And it was a lot better to endure it on a March day in Tuam than in June or July."