By Jacqueline Kennedy and Alanna Cunnane
From the Gold Coast to the Green and Gold of the club
jersey, the sharpshooter with the magic touch, Brian Egan, proved himself a
force to be reckoned in this year’s Tourlestrane semifinal versus Curry.
Kevin Johnson was counting his blessings that the
young man stuck with the decision he made earlier in the year to stay back home
instead of flying back to the “amazing” Oz where he had been for two years.
“I was lucky that Australia had a pretty normal 2020
so we were allowed to do a lot other countries weren’t”
he says.
While he concedes a lot of people were probably “sick
of looking at [his] Instagram story” during that time, he utilized the
opportunity to play with Padraig Pearses who also had links back to an old
stomping ground.
“They had a bit of a Sligo connection as Cathal
Brennan (Curry) and Christopher Davey (Coolaney/Mullinabreena) were over there
when I went” he says.
“I played with both of them in St Attractas back in school,
so it made it all very easy.”
Backpacking across Queensland, Melbourne and New South
Wales picking strawberries, farming, and enjoying life, the O’Neills ball was
clearly firmly tucked within the rucksack, as was evident on his return he hit
the ground running to score a fine tally of 8 points in that electric 80
minutes of football against the noisy neighbours just two weeks ago.
Accustomed to such success at this point, Brian was a
key part of the drive for five in a row as well as Tourlestrane’s underage set
up, racking up a myriad of medals in the process and even donning the black and
white of Sligo over the years.
The barber by trade is unequivocally as skilled with a
football as he is with a scissors and has had the team suited and booted with
the Championship haircuts throughout the competition. He is well aware that
many outfits are avid to see his group “knocked off their pedestal.”
“We embrace the challenge of it all and keep
driving on” he says.
“We just look at the six in a row as another trophy
that we are thankfully able to compete for once again so we are eager to get
the business done now again on Sunday.”
Tourlestrane and Coolera/Strandhill meet in the
Homeland Senior Football Championship Final this Sunday at 4pm in Markievicz
Park.