Inside Track: Young talent needs time to develop

In a chat with a Clan na Gael clubman about a decade ago, he told me they had a “right good prospect.” He was a forward, good on the ball and able to take a score.

A few weeks later Clans were playing in a championship match in St Brigid’s Park, and I went along to throw an eye over the player my friend had been on about.

He was in the corner, and as the game progressed it was easy to see why they were getting excited down Castletown way. He worked hard and got among the scorers

READ MORE: Inside Track: Louth footballers are firing on all fronts

At the time, Conall McKeever had still a few years to go before shedding his teenager tag, and in the piece I wrote about the game, made the plea that he not be rushed.

Because Clans weren’t the force they’d been from the mid-1980s to the end of the following decade, the young man was probably pressed into action sooner than was good for him; but he has not only survived but thrived to become one of the county team’s most consistent performers.

That story came back to me as I watched another Conall, this one Kelly, playing for Louth minors in the championship match with Dublin on last Thursday week.

I’d been told about the Dreadnots lad a month or so ago, and then read where he had scored 0-8 against Laois, and after that a whopping 2-8 in another championship tie with Offaly.

He came in with nine points against Dublin after giving a near flawless exhibition of free-taking, a number of his strikes coming from outside the arc.

If he wasn’t as prominent in open play as he’d been against Offaly, it was because his marker barely gave him room to breathe, rarely staying within the rules, it must be said.

The lad’s just 16, which means he’ll be playing minor again next year. It’s for certain he won’t lack for guidance, being only exposed to adult football when the time is right.

He’s the son of Colin, a club championship winner and for a long time the county team’s leading scorer.

The young man is now taking instructions from Jonathon Clerkin, Gavin Devlin and their colleagues running the county minors; but before that happened you can be sure there were lots of sessions out the back of the Kelly home in Clogherhead and down at Páirc Dreadnot.

Colin’s mind must have strayed back to one particular match as he watched the action at Parnell Park on the night of the Dublin tie.

Although Louth seniors are still waiting for a first championship win over the Dubs since 1973, some league meetings of the sides have gone the other way.

One of them was at the Dublin headquarters in the 1996/’97 league. It ended 1-7 to 0-8, and Kelly scored all but a point of his side’s total.

And the year before that, he did the same, claiming eight points in the 0-9 to 1-5 win at St Brigid’s Park, Louth also trumping the metropolitans..

You know you have many, many years on the clock when you look at underage players’ pedigrees and discover it wasn’t their fathers but grandfathers you tussled with in club football

Take this Louth team, for instance. I’d finished playing with Dundalk Gaels before Colin Kelly came along, but would have had outings against his father, the resolute O’Rahilly’s defender, Oliver.

Same with Rian Hickey’s grandfather, Mal, and Senan Hoey, Aaron’s son and Anthony’s grandson. There could be others.

I’m still competing with Cian Rooney’s dad, Mickey Rooney. It’s at the dog track, Mickey on the soapbox with chalk in his hand and me trying, mostly unsuccessfully, to back a winner.