At the age of 37 and with eight county championship medals, an All-Ireland Under 21 victory, an All-Ireland Club title, Munster Club medals, several East Kerry Championships and County League crowns already to his credit, swashbuckling Dr Crokes star Brian Looney is still hungrier than ever for success on the field. But, as John O’Mahony discovers, any young players hoping to fill the veteran’s boots will have to play the waiting game for a while longer. As Sunday’s Munster Club Championship opponents Castlehaven will discover, the footballing life of Brian still has a few more chapters to be penned
With the deep stock of superlatives long since exhausted, seasoned GAA hacks have been frantically thumbing through the pages of Roget’s Thesaurus seeking inspiration and suitable descriptions to sum up the contribution of Brian Looney to Dr Crokes.
But it’s a struggle. There aren’t many original terms of praise left.
Consistent? Check.
Veteran? Check.
Influential? Check.
Stylish? Check.
Speedy: Check.
Committed? Check.
Brian Looney has heard and read them all, time and again, sometimes ad nauseam, during his close on 20-year all-action involvement with the black and amber senior squad.
But during the course of a lengthy conversation, when a fleeting mention is made of a more recent description of the Crokes star as the best club footballer in Kerry over several years, the affable, chatty but hugely modest 37-year-old is, for once, almost caught for words.
“Ah look, I’m not good with personal recognition. In a team sport you don’t do it for personal accolades”.
Pressed a little harder, he concedes: “Ah, when you hear things like that of course it’s flattering. It’s a nice thing to hear, I suppose. But, again, it’s all about the team for me”.
Fact is there are few observers who would dispute the depiction of Looney as a standout performer over a protracted period of time; the quintessential club player, black and amber blood pumping through his arteries, who has committed his sporting life to ensuring the Clear Air Boys have a plentiful supply of oxygen to fuel the high stool bragging rights.
He is, plainly speaking, the ultimate clubman. Always has been. Always will be.
It’s not that Looney wouldn’t have grasped and stubbornly kept a clench on any opportunity to wear the green and gold if it came his way but, as it transpired, apart from a brief flirtation, it just wasn’t to be in the senior grade.
At underage level, it was a different story.
His speed and his flair came to real prominence when he lined out with St Brendan’s College in the Corn Uí Mhuire but the campaign ended in heartbreak at the hands of a slick Bishopstown outfit, depriving Brian of an opportunity to emulate the achievement of his dad, Tom, who has a Hogan Cup medal, stamped 1969, in a drawer at home.
There were some familiar faces alongside Brian on that Sem team with Kieran O’Leary, Mike Moloney and John Payne – also to become part of Dr Crokes folklore – among his schooldays team-mates and pals.
The college coaching team of Gary McGrath, Jeremy Kenny and Hugh Rudden wasn’t slow in spotting and nurturing the young Woodlawn attacker’s potential and it came as no surprise when he was summoned to join the Kerry minor squad in 2004 and 2005, although All-Ireland glory proved elusive for Seán Geaney’s charges.
There was more cause to celebrate in the next grade up, however, when Brian and the likes of David Moran, Johnny Buckley, Kieran O’Leary, Mike ’Stam’ O’Donoghue and Tommy Walsh won an All-Ireland Under 21 medal with Geaney’s Kerry in 2008.
But the wing forward’s expected progression to the senior ranks wasn’t as smooth or as natural as had been hoped. It remains a case of what might have been.
Even though he had progressed to make an enormous impact at senior club level, captaining Crokes to a 2010 Bishop Moynihan Cup victory – their first title in a decade – Brian’s senior inter-county involvement that year was limited to just one solitary appearance, as a late substitute in a league game against Mayo, during Jack O’Connor’s first term at the helm.
Regrets?
“Absolutely not. It just wasn’t to be,” the Crokes man insisted.
“I was playing good football back then but I put that down more to the people that were around me with the Crokes than anything else.
“I was a very slight fella at the time. I got a few chances but it never really worked out. I picked up a couple of injuries but I just don’t think I was at that standard at the time, physically speaking.
“Of course, every fella wants to play for Kerry but my priority was always Dr Crokes. I got a sniff of success the first time we got to the county final and that’s what drove me on every year, to get back and be successful at club level and try to get those honours rather than the search for the Kerry jersey.
“That’s not to disrespect the county jersey but I just didn’t feel it was for me. Physically, I wasn’t there at the time and I just love playing club football,” he said.
And he’s not bad at it either.
This year’s clash with Dingle in Austin Stack Park was, incredibly, his 11th county final – the 12th if you include 2005 when he was tagged on to the panel while still a minor – and he now has eight winners’ medals to polish and admire.
And success is a diet that suits Brian Looney as, he insists, the wins keep on getting better.
“This year was right up there – the latest one is always the best and the sweetest for some reason,” he said.
This is Looney’s third stint playing under the management of the astute Pat O’Shea and he enthusiastically shares the general consensus that the former All-Ireland winning Kerry manager is one of the best in the business.
Unusually for Crokes, they went six years without watching black and amber ribbons being attached to the ears of the Bishop Moynihan Cup but O’Shea returned and turned it around completely.
He has pinpointed and perfected the perfect formula to blend the experience of the likes of Looney, Kieran O’Leary, Fionn Fitzgerald, John Payne, Shane Murphy and his own son Gavin with some of the exciting younger prospects of the calibre of Evan Looney, Neil O’Shea, Charlie Keating, Maidhcí Lynch and sharpshooter Cian McMahon who, snapshots featured here will show, considered Looney an inspiration when he was growing up and now they are lining out together week in week out.
“There had been a lot of work done in the years before Pat returned, particularly by the likes of Brian McMahon, Edmund O’Sullivan and their management teams, to bring on the younger fellas from the age of 17 or 18 and these are the guys that have come through now to give us that balance,” Brian said.
McMahon and O’Sullivan aside, the management roles filled over the years by the likes of John Galvin, Martin Byrnes, Noel O’Leary, Vince Casey and Harry O’Neill are also acknowledged by the Listowel AIB official who said playing alongside quality performers such as Colm Cooper, Eoin Brosnan, Johnny Buckley, Daithi Casey and Kieran O’Leary was also hugely beneficial
“Pat, I must say, brought that extra dimension that was needed. It’s kind of hard to describe sometimes but he’s just a fantastic coach, a very passionate clubman and he has a great way with players, getting the best out of everybody,” Looney said.
“From a timing perspective, it was the ideal time for him to come back. He knew that the younger talent was there and we just needed that little bit extra to get us over the line”.
While the team has adapted, Crokes have remained loyal to the trademark attacking, possession style that makes them one of the most attractive clubs to watch but in keeping with modern day football, every player also has their defensive duties.
“We always try to keep the ball and move the ball, kicking it a little bit more and the way we want to play is to get every fella involved. We’re doing that better this year and it has been easier under Pat,” Brian said.
A more familiar sight for close on two decades with the number 12 jersey on his back, the veteran attacker can’t help noticing that much mention is being made of his current role at right half back but, contrary to popular opinion, this isn’t his first season patrolling the wing from deeper.
“I first ventured to wing back three years ago and I’ve spent most of the last two years there as well but we weren’t that much in the limelight so maybe it didn’t get noticed. I’ve probably still played more games at wing forward this year but I’m adaptable to either.
“There is a lot of movement anywhere in the middle third so there’s a lot of similarities between wing back and wing forward. Getting on the ball and moving forward suits the way I like to play,” he said.
The anoraks will relish the statistic that Brian Looney’s enormous contribution to the Dr Crokes championship history dates all the way back to 2005, when he played a minute or two in a second round clash against Milltown in Killorglin, but he made his full debut the following season.
It went well but the season has mixed emotions as it served up the bitter potion of defeat at the end of that campaign with a county final loss to hands South Kerry.
That, the sporting historians will tell you, was a day in Killarney that saw Bryan Sheehan’s sensational long-distance free enter Kerry GAA folklore and break Crokes hearts. But it didn’t impact on the burning Looney ambition to succeed.
Eight county championship medals and several O’Donoghue Cup honours later, one of the most memorable highlights of Brian’s playing days was the All-Ireland Club Championship final win – again under Pat O’Shea – against Slaughtneil of Derry in 2017.
But, despite having many moments to savour, the Peter Pan of the Kerry GAA insists, it’s the gut-wrenching, soul destroying days that make the good days even better.
“A lot is said about the amount that we have won but there was a huge amount that we lost. The first big win I had with Crokes was the county championship title in 2010 but prior to that we had lost three county finals. That toughens you and it stands to you.
“After that we won four county championships in a row but subsequently lost three All-Ireland semi-finals in a row. There were a lot of bad days with the good days and the sad days certainly helped to drive us on and keep us successful,” he said.
Brian is obviously hoping that this Sunday’s Munster Club Championship clash with Rebel kingpins Castlehaven will be another of the good days but he is taking absolutely nothing for granted.
Crokes plan to be the perfect hosts – off the field – at Lewis Road but they would love nothing more than to send their opponents back to west Cork, well fed, well watered but pondering on what might have been.
“They are back-to-back Cork county champions and they got to the All-Ireland semi-final last year so, obviously, they will be formidable.
“When we are playing clubs from outside of Kerry we lose that bit of familiarity and they are going to be very difficult to beat,” he said.
Win or lose and at whatever stage this year’s campaign draws to a close, what’s next for the 37-year-old black and amber star who has long since done enough and achieved a sufficient amount to ensure his legacy will stand the test of time when the annals of the modern day Dr Crokes are being scripted.
The son of former GAA and basketball great Tom Looney and Anne (nee O’Connor), herself an accomplished squash player at a high level, Brian and his wife, Gina, have two daughters Iris (4) and two-year-old Adie, and with the demands of parenthood, the long trek to and from work in Listowel five days a week, training sessions two or three nights a week and a match most weekends, it becomes more challenging as time ticks by.
But there will be no pair of boots hanging on the peg in the Looney household just yet.
“I’d be telling a lie if I said I haven’t given it any thought and I haven’t given any commitment about the future either.
“Talking about another two years is certainly not an option but, do you know what, I’ve always said if the body is willing and able and the enjoyment is still there I’ll keep trying while I can because when it’s gone it’s gone.
“It’s great at the moment because we’re on a high and I haven’t had too much time to think about what will next year might bring”.
“Like you said, there is a lot going on between family, work and the career so there are other things to consider as well but I still love it and if the body is still able to compete at this level and if I can bring something to the table then I will”.
He acknowledges, though, that there is no shortage of talented young Crokes players chomping at the bit to get a run in the senior side and, if the opportunity arises, they would only be too willing to step up to fill the boots of Brian Looney.
Chances are, however, they will have to wait longer than they might expect to oust the best club footballer in Kerry over several years, whether he agrees with that description or not.
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