Ivan Keatley
There are hardly enough hours in the day for St Laurence’s stalwart IVAN KEATLEY who manages to combine football with work, politics and a young family.
LOCAL POLITICS
Mondays and Tuesday are generally taken up by county council matters and then the day job of carpentry are Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, maybe even Saturday then as well.
Training in the evenings with all that and community stuff on top of it puts you under a bit of pressure but it’s not too bad, it’s different obviously to an inter-county footballer. The commitment wouldn’t be as high but still, when you are trying to keep it all up in the air it can be hard at times.
MEETINGS, MEETINGS, MEETINGS
The days are pretty busy. The only time I get to commit to the football would be in the evening, after 7. It may happen sometimes that meetings might run on a bit later and I might be able to get a gym session in a bit earlier but generally it would be the evening time.
Mondays are normally full up of meetings and then there are outside meetings in the community in the evenings during the week. They could be anything from Fine Gael branch meetings, community meetings. I’m secretary of the club this year as well so there are usually a couple of meetings with Laurence’s during the month as well. There are a lot of meetings!
CLUB MATTERS
In fairness, at Laurence’s we have an extremely pro-active committee. Willie Keatley is an extremely proactive chairman so there is not as much work as secretary as there is maybe in some other clubs. Pam Donovan is assistant secretary and she looks after some of the more arduous stuff like the injury claims and things like that. It’s not like it was in the past when the secretary did everything. The workload is spread out thanks be to God.
I’ve been a local councillor now for a little over two years. It’s something very different. It’s not something that I ever had an ambition of going into but now that I am in it, it’s very interesting. It’s challenging and that’s good, something that challenges you keeps your attention. It’s similar to football in that you are representing people and you’d like to think that you are representing their best interests. I’ve got to meet an awful lot of people that I wouldn’t have otherwise, again like the football, so it’s great for opening your eyes to different opinions from different people.
IVAN THE DADDY
My wife Eleana gave birth to our first baby, Eliza, at the end of last month. She took her first dose of Calpol last night so myself and Eleana got our first full night’s sleep in five weeks. It was an added pressure for the last month or six weeks but it’s been brilliant. It’s just a pity that she has mixed up her days with her nights but you are going to get in that in the first weeks anyway!
IVAN THE FOOTBALLER
I think this year that I am oldest on the panel but I think my effectiveness has more to do with injuries and well-being as opposed to the age. In the last couple of years I’ve had niggling injuries and I’ve probably had more injuries in my 20s than in my 30s. Touch wood, I’m in great health at the moment and once you are fit you obviously play an awful lot better. As long as I can stay injury-free I don’t see age having an impact on whether I give up or not.
In career terms I am sitting down a lot more during the day which does help as you get older, it gives the body a chance to recuperate and recover. In terms of flexibility I am still pretty good. Most of the problems I have had have been impact injuries in games.
Joe (Murphy, Laurence’s manager) would tell you himself that because he wasn’t involved in the Kildare championship that he wouldn’t have been that familiar with the set up in Kildare and the players involved. He is very passionate about his football and that comes across when you speak with him. He has a good group of selectors with him too, that wasn’t an issue last year and it won’t be an issue this year either. He’s a good man and we are lucky to have him but I am going to say that considering I am looking for him to pick me!
COUNTY MEN
We had Shane (Connolly) with us at the weekend which was great. The year we had five players involved with the county it definitely affected us. We’re back to having the three lads and that helps the club scene when you have more lads training. That’s not to say the lads who are on the county team are not committed – they are extremely committed clubmen as well and we are very lucky to have the calibre of player that we have.
CHANGING TACT
We’ve plenty of strong personalities in the dressing room now and I don’t really feel the need as much as I would have three or four years ago to be a little bit more boisterous and be a little bit louder. I probably think the opposite is the case now. I tend to concentrate on the field and what I have to do. When you are getting on in years you have to concentrate on getting the best out of yourself and that is what I am trying to do at the moment.
PUSHING ON
When we won in ’09 we were considered a very young team but we are not a young team anymore. Most of our prominent players are well into their mid-20s or late 20s at this stage and we would certainly feel that we’re capable of producing results and getting county championships. Obviously there has to be huge work put in but we’re a rural club, we don’t have a massive squad so hopefully if we can stay healthy and keep the injuries down to a minimum we can compete and put pressure on the top lads.
