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THE  KERRY  McKEON  BLOG  ....  ISSUE 46

KING  AND  HIS  MEN

As we resume our Blog for the new season our first call of duty is to congratulate Shane King on his elevation to the hot seat of Eastern Harps senior manager for 2015. To complete Shane’s backroom team he has chosen Shane Gallagher, Des Horan and Paul Judge all of whom have experience in the physio,  medical and mentor requirements necessary for the job. We wish all of them well at a time that is largely considered to be a transitional era for Eastern Harps. For well over two decades now few people have epitomised the courage, the dedication to the end cause or the free spirit prevailing at Eastern Harps better than Shane King. Together with brilliantly assisting our own under age teams for many years, he played County under 16 winning a Fr Manning Cup medal in 1994 and County minor under then manager Leo Boland often outshining marvellous performers of the era such  as Keith Carty, Dara McGarty and Sean Davey. However it was as a senior player with Eastern Harps that Shane really left his imprint on the clubs history. Despite a long term cruciate ligament injury while in his early twenties which set him back eighteen months Shane went on to pick up four senior club championship medals with the most prized of all being in 2010 when Shane captained his Eastern Harps side to victory in the very week his twin sons Ben and Charlie were born. What a week !

When it came down to versatility nobody, not even Harps legends like Paul Taylor and Ross Donovan, could compare with Shane King. He played in every outfield position for Harps depending on the particular needs of the day and played extremely well in all of them. He was always available to take a score, prevent a score, provide an assist or mark a man making him a truly wonderful asset to any management team. In today’s game which is laced with so called systems Shane King would be even more useful. And so it is with this type of background our 2015 senior panel will listen and look up to Shane King. And they would be displaying wisdom to do so.  KING AND HIS MEN  have started well. After seven competitive games played they are still unbeaten and have a welcome trophy,The Kiernan Cup, on the table. Five points so far from a possible six is a great return in the Division One League, however more difficult assignments are just around the corner. Nobody expects miracles this year but a good league run plus the quarter finals at least of the senior championship must be a minimum target. A bit of momentum in the final league games before the championship starts  would be a welcome stimulus. Our support for these targets is there. Lets grasp it.

Looking further ahead into the next decade or two it is becoming clear that we hopefully will have several wise heads locally to lead our footballing sides along. Paul Taylor has had four years experience with the county senior side under his belt allied to his stellar playing career and he surely will be head hunted at some stage, Keith Carty is now in his second year with the Sligo county side and is doing very well picking up valuable experience under two county managers and he can expect a knock on his door at some stage also. Ross Donovan is now a county coach and much further down the line hopefully he will become available to us. There are indeed a few others inside our own patch. But any craftsman in any trade can only be as good as the tools he has available to him. These tools are the young players and these can only be shaped and honed by under age coaches. We are extremely lucky in that regard. We will refrain from mentioning names due to the risk of omissions but we have had and currently have a wonderful bunch of knowledgeable and skilled personnel available to us in that sphere. Long may it continue.

Lean  na  Clairsigh

Bye for now,

P J McKeon      for     Kerry  McKeon    R I P