WHEN SEÁN MILKERRIN suffered a devastating knee injury in January of last year, his absence created a huge void at full-back for the Galway footballers.
The Aran Islands defender shattered his kneecap while on Sigerson Cup duty with NUIG, thereby ruling him out for the rest of the season. The game against Ulster University was abandoned, such was the extent of the damage.
Mulkerrin’s breakthrough with Galway in 2020 was a celebrated milestone, as he became the first native of the Aran Islands to play senior championship football. But the show had to go on without him.
Galway manager Pádraic Joyce scanned through the other defensive options at his disposal to find his new number three. He landed upon Seán Kelly from the Moycullen club. And by July of that year, Mulkerrin’s successor was captaining Galway into their first All-Ireland final appearance since 2001.
“He probably wouldn’t be a natural, traditional full-back but Pádraic played him in the corner a bit when Mulkerrin was fit,” says Moycullen chairman Paul Clancy who is a former Galway teammate of Joyce’s, and a two-time All-Ireland winner.
“I remember him playing against Tyrone a couple of years ago in Tuam when Pádraic started out and he picked up the most dangerous corner-forward they had who was Cathal McShane, and Seán matched up on him.
“And then when Seán Mulkerrin got injured, Seán [Kelly] just slotted in at full-back.”
Players who serve in the full-back line typically find a home there from an early age. It’s a specialist area of minding the house. But not Kelly. He has cycled through a few different positions across almost every line before reaching this bus stop. Clancy explains that he was a corner-forward on the first Moycullen team to win at the Minor A grade. Peter Cooke also played on that team at midfield. Dessie Conneely was involved on that squad too.
When Moycullen contested the All-Ireland senior club semi-final against Derry champions Glen earlier this year, Kelly had the three jersey on his back. But he lined out at corner forward.
He’s carved out a similar pattern with Galway, churning out performances at half-back, half-forward and corner-back while serving under both Kevin Walsh, and now Joyce.
“He’s just a really excellent athlete and he’s got a massive work ethic,” says Clancy.
“So, if he plays wing forward, he will cover the full-back line, the half-back line – he covers everywhere and he’s a dream to play with because if your man is gone, Seán will cover him. That versatility means we just have to fill up the other spots and let Seán play where he wants.”
Kelly’s history of playing as an attacker explains a lot about his unusual approach to the full-back role. He’s a rare critter in that respect although we have seen similar cases in the form Derry’s Brendan Rogers, former Tyrone defender Ryan McMenamin and his county contemporary Pádraig Hampsey.
Kelly is a sturdy defender but he’s also a regular sight at the other end of the pitch, coming back down with a vital score to his name. Just last week we saw another demonstration of that as Kelly chalked up 1-1 for Galway, including a goal that will surely remind him of his corner-forward days.
And Kelly carries out all that forward play without ever neglecting his primary role as a central defender. He never appears to be gassed by the effort. Output like that requires a monstrous engine, and Kelly is blessed with that.
Along with his two brothers — and fellow Galway panelists — Paul and Eoghan, the Kellys have enjoyed plenty of success playing basketball. Seán won Basketball Ireland’s U-20 National Cup with Moycullen in 2015, while Paul captained Ireland at the 2019 U-18 European Championships. Eoghan went to America on a basketball scholarship after sitting the Leaving Cert.
Basketball is certainly a sport that puts oil in the tank, while Clancy also puts it down to genetics that they inherited from their late father Pádraig ‘Dandy’ Kelly, as well as his S&C qualification from Setanta College.
“He has the same kind of genetics, very athletic as well. That’s where you’d kind of see the resemblance and athletic ability [in his sons].
“They’re freak athletes and they’ll just keep going all day at a high level. They have that athletic ability but what really sets Seán apart is just how motivated he is. There are lots of people who are athletic — maybe not at his level — but he’s just so motivated to go hard at it.
“Even for the penalty [against Armagh], he got absolutely knocked out by three or four of them. And then he gets punched in the head, and next thing he’s up and he goes for goal knowing he’s going to get hammered there again.
“He solos into the square and slots it. So, he has a few tricks to his bow but the biggest thing is the drive he has. He’s willing to put it on the line the whole time.”
Kelly’s appetite sometimes requires management and tapering off to avoid damaging that engine. He effectively played for 12 months last year due to the lengthy runs of the teams he was on, and keeping him off the pitch was often a challenge according to Clancy.
“We’d be looking to get a break into him but he tends to want to keep going. He did get injured himself a few years ago. He had a bad hamstring injury and just couldn’t shake it for a while.
“Since then, he’s just kept going and managed it himself. If Seán wants to train, he trains and when he doesn’t, he doesn’t. But he trains more than he doesn’t.”
Kelly appeared to be struggling when he was withdrawn in the late stages of his side’s defeat to Armagh last Sunday. And with just three days to go before their All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final against the old enemy Mayo, it’s not quite clear whether he will be fit to play.
Damien Comer and Dylan McHugh were already unavailable through injury before the Armagh game, and should Kelly miss out this Sunday, Galway would be without the services of arguably the most versatile defender in Gaelic Football.
“Seán is a real action kind of player,” says Clancy. “He doesn’t do a whole pile of talking, so players really look up to him. But when he does talk, everybody sits up and listens to him. Even the two balls he got the last day really drove the team on. He’d be such a big loss but we’d be hoping that he’d make it.”
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