When John Keane walked away from inter-county football at the latter end of 2002, he wasn't sure if he'd return. But having regained his appetite for the game, he made a spectacular return to the Westmeath colours this year which culminated in him winning his first All-Star award. Down Rose-mount way, Gaelic football is a religion. Men like Jack Carberry, Georgie Keane and Tom Darcy, who have brought so much glory to the picturesque Westmeath village down the years, are revered figures. Now the locals have a new name to idolize. From an early age, John Keane - nephew of the aforementioned Georgie - was regarded as an outstanding talent. He made his senior debut for Westmeath in the latter part of 1999 and was a regular under Luke Dempsey until 2002 when he decided to take a break. At the time, Keane didn't know if he would ever play for Westmeath again. But having regained his appetite for the game, he made a spectacular return to the fold this year by playing a starring role in Westmeath's historic Leinster championship success and becoming Rosemount's first All-Star winner. "It was a great year," says Keane, who was named at left half back on the 2004 All-Star team, a team which also contained his Westmeath colleague Dessie Dolan. "Winning the Leinster title was a dream come true and to win an All-Star as well really capped it off. To win the All-Star is a great honour for myself, my family, my club and my county. It means an awful lot to the people of Rosemount because football is such a big thing there. "It's great to win the All-Star, but I'd prefer to have an All-Ireland medal in my back pocket. That would be the ultimate prize to win," he adds. Keane could never have envisaged what lay in store for him this year after he turned his back on the inter-county scene in 2002. He recalls: "Having played for the seniors for three years and the under 21s for two years, I was sick and tired of football. The same drive wasn't there and I thought the only way I would get it back was by taking a break. But I wasn't sure if I'd play for Westmeath again. It was very much a case of playing it by ear. "At that time, I just wanted to concentrate on other things. It was my final year in college at NUI Maynooth and when that was over, I headed to Boston for the summer where I played a bit of football with Connemara Gaels. As it turned out, it was the break I needed." On his return to Ireland, Keane felt refreshed and was duly included in Paidi O Se's squad for a challenge match against Dublin in Templeogue which marked the Kerry legend's debut as Westmeath manager. But after breaking his thumb in that game, Keane headed to Australia where he completed his "year off". The powerfully-built defender feared he wouldn't be part of Paidi O Se's plans when he watched Westmeath's O'Byrne Cup campaign from the stands. When Westmeath travelled to Cork for their first game in the National League, Keane still wasn't involved. But the call he had been eagerly awaiting finally came a week later when Longford were the visitors to Cusack Park. "I was so anxious about the whole thing that I rang up Jack Cooney to see if I was in Paidi's plans," he says. "He assured me that there was place for me and the next thing I knew, I was making my comeback against Longford. I wouldn't have started that game but for the fact that Jimmy Davitt cried off at the last minute." Keane returned to a Westmeath team that was struggling to find its feet in Division 1 of the National League. A succession of poor results left them in danger of being relegated, but they avoided such a fate courtesy of a morale-boosting win over Mayo in the final round. "We took a lot of flak during the league but at the end of the day, we were training hard and I was always confident that we would peak in time for the championship. "Beating Mayo to stay up was a definite turning point in our season. Fellas like Damien Healy and Paul Conway returned from injury for that game and everything just seemed to fall into place. We got our confidence back and didn't lose again until the All-Ireland quarter-final against Derry." Keane, whose older brothers David and Cathal also represented Westmeath (Cathal was full forward on the 1995 All-Ireland winning minor team), modestly claims that luck played a big part in Westmeath's championship odyssey. "There's a very thin line between success and failure and thankfully the luck was with us in this year's championship. On other days, we wouldn't have beaten Offaly, Dublin or Laois. Even against Wexford, we were struggling until Shane Colleary scored the goal to turn the tide in our favour." The Mullingar-based school teacher excelled in Westmeath's glorious campaign with his tenacious defending and all-action style really catching the eye. Arguably his most accomplished performance came against Laois in the Leinster final replay when time and again, he snuffed out the danger. It was widely felt that Westmeath had blown their chance of victory when Laois caught them at the death in the drawn encounter, but according to Keane, the thought never crossed his mind. "I suppose at the final whistle there was some disappointment but by the Tuesday night when we returned to training, we had put the disappointment behind us and just wanted to get on with completing the job," he explains. "The big difference between this year and other years is that we went into every single game expecting to win. It wasn't like that before now. I remember thinking when Meath came from nine points down to draw with us in 2001 that we had missed the boat. Our attitude was completely different last year." Having tasted success last year, Keane is not surprisingly eager for more in 2005. "We'll be aiming higher. We now know what it takes to get there and we also know the areas where we need to improve. There will be a certain amount of pressure on us and the worst thing that we could do is rest on our laurels. I definitely think we are capable of improving by another 10 or 15 per cent," he concludes. Tweet

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