Deserved second honour for Rosemount"s John Keane

When John Keane won his first All-Star in 2004, he said he would gladly swap the award for an All-Ireland medal.Now that he has the distinction of being the only Westmeath player with two All-Stars to his name, his view remains the same.'I"d swap ten of them for an All-Ireland medal,' he quipped, at the awards function last Friday night. 'I"d swap a couple of them for a county championship as well if I could get my hands on one.''Everyone wants an All-Ireland medal, that"s all you ever want, or even another Leinster, you"d take it. Individual awards are never as satisfying as what you"d win together as a team or as a group. It"s a great honour (to get a second All-Star). I was delighted with my first one and it was a bit more surprising this time around, I suppose we didn"t get that much of a run in the championship,' Keane told the "Westmeath Independent".Back in 2004, Keane was selected on the All-Star team at wing-back, even he played throughout the season at corner-back. This time around, the Rosemount man has been selected in the position he is most associated with.'I suppose I spent most of my earlier years trying to get out of the full-back line and now I wouldn"t know what to do outside the 21-yard line. It was a strange one in 2004, getting it in the half-back line. Nowadays, I"m a corner-back and that"s it ... I"m kind of happy that I got it in my own position.'The selection of both goalkeeper Gary Connaughton and defensive lynchpin Keane is a reflection of the excellence of the Westmeath defence over the course of the 2008 season.'I think this year we developed a good bit as a unit and as a team and as a panel of players, including the management, backroom team and everything. We"ve competed at a high level, we"ve proved we can compete at a high level. We just need to build on whatever we achieved this year. As the championship turned out, it was very disappointing. I know a lot of people were slapping us on the back and saying well done and stuff. We might have outlived everyone else"s expectations, but we definitely didn"t come anywhere close to our own. Next year is a very big year for us.'With Keane being selected for the Ireland International Rules series - he departed for the Australia with the Irish squad last Friday - it"s been a fantastic couple of weeks for the Rosemount man.'I was delighted. First of all, myself, Denis (Glennon) and "Nachy" (Michael Ennis) were called into the (training) panel. I was delighted at that stage. We didn"t know how it would go because it"s a different type of training and a different type of game. I obviously did enough to get myself onto the panel.'While there may have many reservations expressed about the future of the International Rules series, given the disciplinary fiasco of two years ago, the chance to represent Ireland is something Keane is really looking forward to.'All I ever wanted to do when I was a young lad was play for Rosemount and when I got that, all I wanted was to play for Westmeath. I suppose you"ll always expect more of yourself as the years go on. It is a great honour, (I"m) really looking forward to it and it"s going to be a great experience.'But before Keane could think about All-Stars or the International Rules, he had important business to take care of with his club Rosemount as the black and amber side had to defeat Caulry in a relegation play-off.'There were three events going on over the past couple of weeks. Number one had to be Rosemount. Number two was trying to make the Ireland panel, number three was maybe the All-Stars. Once Rosemount managed to retain intermediate status, the other two things that came along were a bonus,' he said.'At the end of the day, you owe everything that you ever achieve to your club. We had a bit of gathering last night ... and it was fantastic to see the support, and I"ve always had fantastic support from Rosemount. I think it was very important that we managed to retain our intermediate status. We have a good bunch of young lads and there"s great enthusiasm.'Keane"s performance in the Leinster semi-final defeat against Dublin in direct opposition to his NUI Maynooth buddy Alan Brogan was probably one that made the All-Star judges sit up and take notice.'People talked about that game, I never would have been happy with it; we lost the game at the end of the day. It"s not a game that I"ll fondly remember or anything like that. Individual performances count for nothing if your team is not winning. Funnily enough, I wouldn"t say that I was brilliant that day, I know Alan (Brogan) did a lot of damage himself but, whatever way the media picked it up, they probably blew it out of my proportion.'Paying tribute to his team-mates including the 'two young lads' alongside him in the full-back line this year (Francis Boyle and Kieran Gavin) and the work ethic throughout the team, Keane singled out Damien Healy for special praise. Healy is taking time out to go travelling and there is considerable doubt over whether he"ll ever play for Westmeath again.'One guy there, Damien Healy, who is on retirement number four or five at the moment, we"re hoping to fly him back from Australia come May or something! To think that lad was never up at an event like this (the All-Stars) is an awful pity because, when you think about it, he"s probably one of the greatest footballers that ever played for Westmeath.'Keane was naturally delighted that his team-mate Gary Connaughton was awarded an All-Star at the third time of asking.'I"m absolutely delighted for Gary. When I heard the nominations, myself and "Nachy" (Michael Ennis) agreed that if one of us was to get it, he was the man that we wanted to get it. He"s the best goalie in the country as far as we"re concerned for the last five or six years and nobody deserves it more than Gary.There were 15 lads up on that stage and I know a number of them are from Tyrone and have All-Ireland medals, but as far as I"m concerned there was no one up there who deserved it more than Gary,' added Keane.