O'Rourke happy to be back in the loop

Interview

After a spell out of the loop Paddy O’Rourke says he’s delighted to be back in the Meath set up as the countdown continues to Saturday’s Leinster SFC encounter with Wicklow.

At just 24 he’s still one of the younger players on the panel but he returns this year a more experienced performer well aware of how fortunes can suddenly change at the highest level.

Five years ago the towering Skryne player first arrived on the senior inter-county scene when he was brought into the Meath panel as an understudy to Brendan Murphy.

He was firmly establishing himself in 2010 as Meath’s number one when the Royal County defeated Offaly in the opening round of the Leinster SFC. Meath drew with Laois next time out at Croke Park. Everything was working out fine for the young Skryne man and the team.

However in the replay with the O’Moore County at Tullamore it all went awry for O’Rourke. He was sent off and suddenly found himself out of the loop.

O’Rourke subsequently missed Meath’s victory over Dublin and later the never-to-be-fogotten Leinster final against Louth when Joe Sheridan’s controversial goal proved so crucial.

“I was angry with myself for getting sent off but I was also disappointed because I knew, as the evening wore on, I would miss the next game and possibly a Leinster final, which I did,” he recalled as he sat down to talk to Meath Chronicle at the Meath media night in Trim GAA club last week.

“I was only 21 and I thought it was the be all and end all to play in a Leinster final. There was all that emotional attachment between Meath and Louth and knowing lads on the Louth panel from college I though it was the end of the world sitting in the stand and not togged out that day.”

O’Rourke was back in harness in 2011 but not as goalkeeper. Instead he was tried outfield, sometimes joining Sheridan and his cousin Shane O’Rourke in what was an physically imposing attack.

Looking back now Paddy O’Rourke didn’t feel that 2011 went well, he didn’t enjoy his football, his life as a target man and ended up slipping away from the inter-county scene altogether in 2012.

A business student at DkIT Dundalk he went to America last summer and ended up watching how Meath fared out in the championship from 3,000 miles away. It wasn’t an particularly enjoyable experience for him.

“Last summer I went to Boston and played football over there, outfield. It was a great experience and it was good to see a different side of the world at the same time it was hard to look at a TV and watch the lads playing against Dublin and Laois in the qualifiers. It was really hard not to be a part of it.

“I’m 24 now, I sitting sort of half-way on the panel. There’s a lot of lads younger than me, there’s a few of us in around the same age. It’s time for me to step up, make the commitment, be one of the role models for the young lads, to be one of the leaders.”

While after 2011 he felt his chance of playing outfield for Meath again had “definitely gone” he didn’t give up hope of making a return as goalkeeper.

He got his chance when Mick O’Dowd recalled him for this year’s league and championship campaign. He did his cause no harm with a couple of commanding performances in the NFL.

Recently elected to the paid post of vice-president of the students’ union in DkIT for at least a year O’Rourke has sorted out his employment for the near future.

Now back in possession of the number one jersey O’Rourke has a chance to shine in what he hopes will be a sustained run in the championship starting with the Garden County on Saturday.


Jimmy Geoghegan