2017 HAS been far from a routine playing season for Ronan Sweeney.
Since he brought his stint as a player with the Lilywhites to a halt in 2013, Sweeney has immersed himself in inter-county coaching.
He has had spells with Waterford and Sligo before returning to his native Kildare last winter to join up with Cian O’Neill as a selector.
The demands of that position meant something had to give and for a large chunk of this year he had to park his playing plans with Moorefield.
Sweeney has been present for great days for the Newbridge club that have collected eight Kildare titles and one Leinster crown since 2000.
Yet despite being a bystander for much of this campaign and only making his first start after their county final triumph, it was the 37-year-old who was wearing a broad smile in O’Moore Park yesterday after playing such a central role in Moorefield’s sensational final victory.
Sweeney’s fingerprints were all over Moorefield’s best and brightest spells. He was influential as they exerted control in the first half before supplying the inspirational moments of magic with the injury-time goal and the alertness to keep the ball alive for Kevin Murnaghan’s winning point.
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“It’s been hard this year especially,” reflected Sweeney.
“The last couple of years the club have trained on alternative nights so I’ve been able to play and coach.
“But this year Kildare trained the same nights as Moorefield so I was rarely there for most of the season which didn’t suit me. I didn’t want that.
“I was thinking (of) not playing at all because of that reason. I didn’t feel comfortable at all coming back into the thing, without actually training with the group or whatever.
“Ross (Glavin) might tell you it was a masterplan or whatever! But when Kildare finished up I was able to commit fully. I just worked my way back into the team.
“The Leinster club was the first game for me to start, I was a sub the rest of them.”
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Sweeney attempted to get his head around the improbable revival that Moorefield conjured up as they struck 1-3 in injury-time to prevail by a single point. The memories of another famous Kildare football comeback did spring to mind for him.
“Maybe in 2000 when we beat the Dubs, we were six down at half-time but we’d a whole half to do that. This was five minutes to go. It was incredible really and I just can’t put it into words.
“But I have to say just to mention the couple of fellas that aren’t here, Adam Tyrrell and Ryan Houlihan were a big loss today, they’re away with the Army. Kieran Kelly and Ian Lonergan and Cian O’Connor suspended, so five guys down to put in a performance like that.
“This is the best competition I’ve ever played in, Leinster club championship is by far the best competition in Gaelic Games I think. I’ve always thought it. Probably doesn’t get enough recognition around the country. Even being played at this time of year, it’s a grand day today but last week was a bloody joke.
“It should be in better conditions to watch the best players playing because there’s nothing like the club to get the spirits going and when people buy into it as well, people are interested in it.”
The playing commitments will drift into 2018 now for Sweeney. He is one of the few survivors from Moorefield’s previous All-Ireland championship foray when they lost out after a semi-final replay against Dr Crokes.
This will be a chance that he will want to seize.
“It’s incredible. We’ve such an opportunity now to go on and do something special. I never thought we’d get back to another All-Ireland semi-final, not in my time anyway.
I think we let ourselves down in 2007, in the semi-final against Crokes, it took us 40 minutes to realise that we’re not actually that far off Crokes. We ended up drawing the game.
“Going into this year’s game in February, we’ll know straight away that we’re actually capable of winning this thing, that we’re just as good as anyone else.”
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