McKeever talks up Teemore

Armagh’s Paul McGrane, left, and Paddy McKeever lift the Anglo Celt cup

Paddy McKeever is our In Focus subject in Thursday’s issue of Gaelic Life. He spoke to Niall McCoy about his playing career and his transition into management.
In this excerpt he talks about this year’s successful campaign with Fermanagh Intermediate champions Teemore:

NMC: I spoke to you prior to the Fermanagh intermediate final and you were furious with the semi-final performance against Maguiresbridge, you must have been happy with their response in the final against Coa?
PMcK: Yeah they responded well against Coa. It’s been a bit of a Jekyll and Hyde season for us to be honest. We were poor in the semi-final and needed to improve for the final, we needed to improve a lot. Actually, a lot of people had started to tip Coa ahead of the game, so it was nice to get through.
We were in the senior final last year and we weren’t that far off Roslea. You see in Fermanagh there’s not much difference between the teams. You look at Armagh, there’s Crossmaglen and one or two teams and then there’s a gap, that doesn’t exist in Fermanagh.
There are 12 or 14 teams that can compete with each other. Just look at the division one table this year, everyone was beating everyone. Fermanagh club football is very open like that.

NMC: An Ulster campaign awaits, will you go and watch the Warrenpoint and Newry Bosco match in the Down final to see who you will be facing?
PMcK: It’s down in Páirc Esler so I will take a run to it. I know it’s probably going to be online, but a camera can only pick up so much. I like to be there so I can watch the whole pitch and see what is happening.
In fairness we just have to put a lot of the focus on ourselves too. We are going well, we are in good enough shape and we just have to make sure we are ready for the challenge, whoever it is we end up facing.
It’s always nice to be involved in the Ulster competitions and, obviously, it will be new for myself as a manager, but it’s a challenge I am looking forward to.