Conall McKeever enjoying special days on and off the pitch

By Paul Keane

This could be a particularly memorable few weeks for Conall McKeever.

There is the possibility of an All-Ireland SFC final appearance later in the month, for starters, if Louth can get the better of Mayo this evening.

The final is slated for Sunday, July 26, the same week that McKeever's wife, former Louth footballer Alannah, is due to give birth to their second child.

If Louth were to do the unthinkable and take the title, and if the McKeevers were to have a baby boy, well, there could be only one name, right? Sam. A nod not just to the precious piece of silverware but also to the talisman performer and captain of Louth's team, Sam Mulroy.

"We were only talking about it all in November, December, when we knew that she was pregnant," said McKeever. "We were saying it would be a lovely problem to have in July. We kind of weren't thinking too much about it then but yeah, we're not far away from it now."

McKeever already has a little boy, 18-month-old Jesse. Life is moving at a brisk pace for the Clan na Gael clubman who has been named again at wing-back for this evening's Croke Park summit.

With 125 appearances already made in red, the secondary school teacher is the most experienced member of the team, ahead of Ryan Burns (120) and Conor Grimes (106).

Ask McKeever about his very first Championship appearance and he takes you back to a time when Louth weren't being mentioned in the conversations around Leinster and All-Ireland titles.

Colin Kelly was in charge at the time, putting his faith in McKeever to start an All-Ireland qualifier tie against Leitrim in the summer of 2015. They won too. But a subsequent heavy loss to Tipperary brought a disappointing season, which also yielded relegation to Division 4 of the Allianz League, to an end.

Speaking after the Leitrim game, boss Kelly didn't sugarcoat it.

"We're a proud county and we don't want to be where we are," he said. "Hopefully we'll start making strides up the ladder, sooner rather than later, with a team that's going to have a bit of longevity, rather than a quick fix."

Far from feeling disillusioned, McKeever was simply buzzing to be able to call himself a Louth senior.

"All you really care about at that stage is just playing, you're on the Louth team and the whole lot," he said, looking back.

McKeever comes from strong GAA stock. His father, Gerry, was on the Clan na Gael team that won the Louth SFC in 1985. His uncle, Benny, was captain. A teenage Steve Staunton was in the forwards and scored the winning goal in the final. Peter Fitzpatrick, the future Louth senior manager and county board chairman, played too.

It was Fitzpatrick that really got the ball rolling for Louth at the back end of 2020, tempting Mickey Harte to come on board as manager. Like predecessor Kelly, Harte wasn't interested in quick fixes and laid down the groundwork which led to the incremental improvements that have left them on the verge of a first All-Ireland final appearance since 1957.

"That seemed to just come out of the blue," said McKeever of Harte's arrival from Tyrone. "I think it was Casey (Ciarán Byrne) that texted me saying, 'Apparently Mickey Harte is going to be the manager' and I kind of thought he was joking."

By then, McKeever was around the midpoint of his senior inter-county career. Still happy to have a red jersey, but keen to push on too.

"We were obviously at a lower level, we needed a lot more detail on the pitch and a lot more instruction," said McKeever, summing up what Harte brought to the table.

"Then obviously Ger Brennan came in, and we didn't kind of need as much of that stuff. So he was able to have a different approach. And obviously Gavin Devlin now, he has come in with his level of enthusiasm, the whole lot really, and with the new rules he's been great at showing us different bits around that. Three different personalities but they've all been great in different ways."

Whatever happens at Croke Park this evening, the feeling in Louth is that they've hit upon something sustainable. McKeever, Ryan Burns, Tommy Durnin, Conor Grimes and Byrne are all still around from that 2015 team.

But they've also got a cohort of brilliant young players from successful U-20s teams. Dara McDonnell, for example, is a Footballer of the Year candidate. Then there's Kelly's son, Connell, who has been ripping it up with Louth minor teams across the last two seasons. There's a new stadium being built too, in Dundalk. Exciting times.

"When you look at it now, where we've come from, there's no comparison," said secondary school teacher McKeever. "Like, the last day in Croke Park against Monaghan, massive crowd, you can hardly hear yourself talk to the player next to you. It's where everyone wants to be playing but back in 2015, at that time, you knew no different I suppose."

After all the progression, beating Mayo and reaching an All-Ireland senior final would be the cherry on top. What's certain is that McKeever won't sleep a wink tonight, he never does.

"It's just very hard to get yourself back down," he said. "You're obviously tired but mentally you're still.."

Wired?

"Yeah, exactly. Say, after the Armagh game in Inniskeen, at the end of that one, where everyone was on the pitch, celebrating, that was unbelievable. It was mad. You're on such a high, it's very hard to get yourself back down."

There'll be more sleepless nights coming too but for a different reason altogether. Good times for sure.