Rooney happy for a shot at redemption

By Michael McMullan

PICTURE the scene. The dressing room tunnel is thronged. There are two extremes. Victory and defeat are a few metres apart but it’s an entire gulf.

The pain on the Kilcoo faces tell one side. The music echoing from behind the Errigal Ciaran door across the hall is the other extreme. Peter Óg McCartan and his kick of dreams is the difference.

For Micéal Rooney, last year’s Ulster final and the defeat never goes away. Seated in the Armagh City Hotel last week, there is the relief of having another crack with Saturday’s clash with Scotstown fast approaching.

“If you were to say to me, walking out of the Athletic Grounds, a year ago that we would get the opportunity to play in another Ulster club final,” Rooney said, “to try and right wrongs or to try and even just have another day out, it’s one of the best days in the club calendar, I would have took your hand off for it.”

It very nearly didn’t happen. The Magpies could only look on as their season rested on Charlie Carr’s last kick of their Down semi-final with Clonduff. A two-point score and they were gone. It tailed wide. Rooney and Kilcoo could breathe again.

Rooney has been used to fine margins. His breakthrough year was their All-Ireland winning season when he clawed a goal chance off the line that would’ve almost certainly have put their light out against Kilmacud Croke’s. Jerome Johnston’s goal followed and the rest is history.

“I don’t think you really ever get over defeats,” he said, asked when the pain of McCartan’s winner subsided.

“I think you need that wee bit of setback. Sometimes you have to lose one to win one sort of thing and I don’t think you ever get over it.

“I think you always do hold on to it slightly because of the pain it causes you, especially when you give your whole life to football.”

Rooney was in the crowd as Scotstown needed penalties to see off Newbridge. Football is everywhere. In Kilcoo it’s a religion. He is the most avid of followers.

If he isn’t playing or preparing to play for Kilcoo or Down, he has his coaching hat on with Lecale Trinity’s MacLarnon Cup team.

“Everything you do revolves around football, your work, your job, your relationships,” he said.

“It’s all to do with football and how you can get better and I think you do hold on to it (defeat).”

A dip back into last year’s Ulster final and Rooney hones in the inches he had control over.

“Any time you lose a match, no matter if it’s league or championship, you’re going to be hurt and you do use that wee bit of fuel,” Rooney said.

“Even personally, you’d use it for things maybe that you need to improve on as well.

“Obviously the Ulster final last year was a tough one to take. It was a bit of a sucker punch at the end,” he said, filing it away under the ‘ifs, buts and maybes’ of life in football’s fast lane.

“Whether it’s by a point or 10 points,” he continued, “obviously that wee bit of hurt is there.”

He knows Scotstown will have their own experiences of the hurt locker. Rooney hit two of the Kilcoo goals in last year’s semi-final blitz. His brother Chrissy bagged another of the five that downed the Monaghan champions.

“Daddy was happy that night to be fair, it’s the only time he’s ever been happy,” Rooney said with a smile, “it doesn’t happen too often.”

There is also a reference to the 2023 game in Newry when Kilcoo looked home and hosed only for Scotstown to level matters before Rory Beggan’s winning free.

“It was tough to take obviously at the time but I suppose they’re probably thinking the same with last year’s game,” Rooney added.

“I think it shows how competitive we are and that Ulster rivalry that’s coming between the two teams. I think it’s really, really healthy and really competitive.”

While Kilcoo stepped out of the Loughmacrory game on the right side and pulled away against Erne Gaels, Scotstown were involved in the competition’s blockbuster game.

Tommy Mallen’s goal looked to have shot them to the final only Newbridge hitting a 1-5 unanswered rally to before extra-time before Scotstown found the winning inches in the penalty shoot-out.

“I thought it was a good game, two real top-class teams,” Rooney said, looking on from the stands.

“It was probably weird, you didn’t really know what to expect with Newbridge being new on the block and you knew what to expect from Scotstown, coming in with the experience they had.

“The momentum seemed to be with Newbridge (after their comeback) and Scotstown were able to eke out a victory even by penalties.

“I still think that says a lot about the resilience that them boys have and that want to win. I think that was probably the thing I was most impressed with watching them.”

From their own point of view, Rooney stresses the importance they place on looking for improvement despite the comfort of hitting four goals in their semi-final against Erne Gaels.

“I still think you can still learn from games,” he said. “Maybe from a neutral looking in, you might think it’s a mismatch when you look at the score.

“I think anybody with a football head on them is going to delve into it a bit closer and they’re going to find things.”

Kick-outs. Two-point kicking zones. Breaking ball. Concentration at not leaving any gaps in behind. When chasing the inches of victory, everything is important. Everything.

“I still think when you watch it back, you’ll see things that you’ll want to work on,” he said.

“If you go in with a win by 11 points where it’s all singing and all dancing, you’re leaving yourself open. You’re being complacent. You have to always look and you have to be ultra critical.”

When the Kilcoo bus rolls into Armagh on Saturday, the scoreboard is reset. It’s a new year and a new chance to win an Ulster title. That’s all they wanted 12 months ago. Their wish on Saturday is obvious. In a competitor’s world, winning is the only thing.