Vetted by Kildare - Sean McGovern Gaelic football is a funny old game. A shoulder to sit up on when the victory is clinched but a licence to ridicule when called ashore before the appointed seventy minutes have elapsed. Racy of the soil and cruelly honest, reputations are never upheld, just won and lost on its playing fields. On essence, the game invariably denies the basis of its own existence. A team game but with enough individual stars to fill a galaxy, gaelic football has also a penchant for lighting up the darker sides of a team's composition. Of all field games, gaelic football, more than most, perfects the art of splitting hairs fifteen times, twice over, in illuminating weak links within the players ranks. Weak links on a football team are like lumps of coal on a snow covered footpath, immediately distinguishable and out of place. Players on a team normally operate within very definite structures and guidelines. Apart from complete mavericks such as Bobby Doyle and Pat Spillane, players usually operate in sectors, thereby facilitating the easy identification of the weak and strong spheres of the particular line out. In gaelic football, a weak link(s) in the middle sector stands out like a boxer's bloody nose. Left to their own devices, midfield liabilities can prove fatal. A midfielder in gaelic football ranks in importance with that of a striker in soccer or an out half in rugby. Kildare's Sean McGovern is a Very Important Player. For each of the last five years, the Athy playermaker has been listed in the Kildare books as a current asset. He has no intention of becoming a liability or a weak link in Mick O'Dwyer's chain-gang. 1992's list of Lilywhite fixed assets should prove the point! A veterinary surgeon by day, the rangy UCD graduate is one of Micko's marauders at night as he makes tracks on the snowy training ground. His six foot, twelve stone frame batters the icy soil and eats up the ground between him and his colleague in front of him on the infamous 'laps'. One of the most respected centre field men in the game, amazingly, the 26 year old could well have been a Breffni Blue a couple of years ago had his commitment to the Lilywhites floundered. "That was back some years ago, maybe three, when I received a phone call from the Cavan team manager, Gabriel Kelly, about my connections and interest in playing with his team," Sean acknowledged. Borne out of an unfounded rumour emanating from within the success-starved Ulster county that McGovern was about to take up work there, Kelly's catch was a non-starter, however. A 'blow-in' at the age of two, young McGovern quickly established himself in the Pale with impressive underage displays with Athy. His father Cyril had moved south from Cavan for business reasons and with is wife Kathleen (nee Conaty) from Ballyhaise, reared five children, Sean being one of three sons. The Cavan blood and Kildare upbringing soon produced a winning academic and sporting formula. An honours Leaving Cert in the back-pocket and a Leinster Minor Championship medal in 1983 augured well for the future. The towering youngster's elevation from minor to under 21 grade wasn't meteoric, but the pedigree was there and he was destined to make an impact. Uncles and granduncles had won All-Ireland medal with Cavan but less fashionable Kildare were content to build from the bottom. Having won an under 21 county championship medal with his native parish, Sean had aspirations of adding a Leinster under 21 medal to his collection. "We were slight favourites to win out in Leinster, but we didn't allow for the likes of Robbie O'Malley, Bernard Flynn and Brian Stafford in the Meath side that we met in the final," Sean remembered, with a definite tinge of disappointment. Happier times were just around the corner as the studies were enlivened by a Sigerson Cup victory in 1985, county team mates Bill Sex and sean Ryan were prominent UCD players on the same winning team. The sporting accolades continued to parallel his academic progress and on graduating in 1987, Sean played a leading role in defeating the Paddy O'Donoghue trained Johnstown Bridge team in the 1987 Kildare Senior Football Championship final. "That is the highlight of my career to date, undoubtedly. Our success ended a long barren period for Athy and secured a first championship win for the club since the early fifties," Sean reflected. Club mates Colm Moran, Anthony McLoughlin and Mark Loughman complimented the skills and work-rate of Athy's adopted son, as a breath of fresh air was swept in by new champions into Kildare football. After every high ...! "We've gone downhill since our championship win and it's hard to understand what exactly has gone wrong. The last three years have been a real disaster for us and the team is not getting any younger. It looks now as if the 1987 win was the last big hurrah for a lot of the team," explains Sean. Flirting with basketball on occasions but forsaking the soccer and rugby which blossoms around Athy, Sean is fully occupied "keeping up with the boys at Athy such as Brendan Whelan and Ger Clancy," he jokingly adds. A debutant with Kildare seniors at 21, he had the proverbial baptism of fire in that game against Kerry as he recalls, "it was a bad winter's day, we got a bit of a hiding and I spent nearly the whole match running after Ger Lynch. It wasn't a match I like to remember particularly." Better days were to follow, including an O'Byrne Cup win in 1989 and his most memorable game yet. "Obviously our National League final game against Dublin was my most memorable game ever. I was happy with my own performance apart from the stray pass to Seamus Dowling which Dublin's Jack Sheedy took full advantage of. It was a nightmare end to that game for me, unfortunately," Sean said with refreshing honesty. An objective observer would hasten to suggest that were it not for the Athy ace's sterling partnership with Martin Lynch over the course of '90/'91, Kildare would not have reached the heady heights of national finals. Under successive Kildare team managers, John Courtney, Pat Fitzgerald and lately Mick O'Dwyer, Sean McGovern has impressed. In a burgeoning county side, the 'erstwhile full back knows that he must maintain his form. "I recognise that I have suffered a loss of form but I feel that I can regain my best form with a higher level of fitness, which I hope to achieve very soon," Sean replied in answer to his feelings on being substitute against Kerry in this year's League and later starting on the bench in his county's tie with Derry. Not adverse to rolling up his sleeves in the course of his work on the farms surrounding his adopted town, Sean McGovern has no qualms about doing likewise in securing a permanent berth on the Lilywhites first fifteen. The presence of five recognised midfielders in the Kildare panel hasn't gone unnoticed in the McGovern household. "The competition for places is a healthy situation and I'm fully prepared to fight to consolidate my place on the team," added Sean defiantly. What of the emerging Niall Buckley? "Niall is a very good player and an exciting prospect and he looks to have a big future ahead of him," was the generous reply. Dedicated to winning a Leinster Championship medal (at the very least), he is confident that Micko can lead his men to the promised land. "Mick has been great for the county. He has this ability to ignite the players and get the best out of every one of us. His enthusiasm is infectious and he knows how to waken us up when the need arises." How then would Sean explain Kildare's faux-pas against Louth in last year's Leinster Championship? "The Louth defeat was a terrible kick in the backside for us. The only explanation I can come up with is that it was due to a combination of lethargy and bad luck on the day. There just wasn't enough fire in our bellies against Louth last year," he explained. Having committed himself to Kildare on a life contract, the 1992 season should prove an interesting barometer for McGovern, O'Dwyer & Co. Taken from Hogan Stand magazine 22 November 1991     © Copyright 2002, The Lynn Group. All Rights Reserved Tweet

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