TRYING TO FIND a gem in the junior football ranks is an aim of any League of Ireland manager, as Shane Keegan told the Football Family, a podcast for subscribers to The 42.
The Cobh Ramblers boss has had notable success in that regard, with Lee Grace the most obvious example. But he also rues the ones who got away . . .
“You get people who are very wrapped up in junior football, particularly if they are involved with one of the top junior sides, will often make the argument that ‘You know I’ve seen some League of Ireland games and junior football is easily as good as League of Ireland first division’. It’s not is the first point I’d make. And quite often the FAI Cup first round fixtures show that,” Keegan said.
“Where I think people are getting mixed up is, there could be two to three good players within a team which are easily capable of playing League of Ireland first division in particular. That’s two three players of that standard playing against 11 players of that standard.
“It’s not how strong are your strongest players? It’s how weak are your weakest players? Because they’re the ones who’ll get picked off and that’s where the difference will be when those players come up against each other in the FAI Cup.”
Keegan said he has a “real thing” for trying to find a gem in junior football. He said the academy system is “brilliant” but “the whole thing of being over coached is definitely a thing”.
He added: “There is something different about them. They don’t always make the right decision . . . which can sometimes be a good thing.
“Because everybody makes the right decisions, the team without the ball knows the decisions you’re going to make. Throw in a wild card who hasn’t been through that structure, who makes independent decisions that sometimes go against him, but when they work for him all of a sudden they can open up a game.”
Keegan said Mark O’Sullivan, who John Caulfield took with him from Avondale to Cork City was perhaps the most famous success story.
“He was an absolute revelation, he went from amateur football to the best centre-forward in the entire League of Ireland in that following season pretty much.”
Keegan told a fascinating story of how Lee Grace came to play for him at Wexford Youths, before eventually going on to star with Shamrock Rovers.
The Wexford manager was tipped off to the potential of Grace, then 21, by a referee who had officiated his games at Carrick United.
After watching Grace and talking to him and his father, Keegan signed him for Wexford, then brought him to Galway United when he became manager there in 2017. Four months later Rovers put in a “fairly substantial bid”.
🗣️ "He came in and he was outstanding for us."
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🗣️ "I went to Galway and immediately brought him."@ShaneKeegan81 on how he came across Lee Grace while he was playing junior football in Waterford.
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“There are guys out there,” Keegan said. “The problem is you actually can’t get them. Two prime examples in the FAI Junior Cup final on Saturday – Eoin Hayes for Newmarket Celtic, Jimmy Carr for St Michaels.”
Keegan said that every manager in the south and west of the country would want these players.
“These are not undiscovered diamonds, these are diamonds that we all know about, I’ll be speaking to them, Tommy Barrett will be speaking to them, John Caulfield might be speaking to them. They’re two class class acts, absolute mainstays of the Irish international amateur team for the last 10 years. Eoin centre-forward, Jimmy left wing, nailed on. Always there.”
Keegan said he tried to sign Carr before but it was “shut down early”. He also took Hayes for lunch and made a “massive sales pitch” while manager of Galway.
“You talk about the advantages of being full-time, this was a disadvantage. Eoin is a clever boy, he’s a teacher in a secondary school in and around Ennis. We trained in the morning. He wasn’t going to give up career for something which may or may not work out.”
To Keegan, there was “no question” of it not working out, due to Hayes’ talent.
“He was the one I was really, really annoyed I could not get, because he’s a class act.”
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