'The Covid year was a real downer that we didn't fulfil the fixture' - Keelan Cawley on the low point of Sligo career

Source: Irish Independent

The Sligo veteran has seen it - bar those elusive championship medals - during an inter-county career stretching back 15 years. And that includes a Connacht campaign that never happened.

Even three-and-a-half years on, memories of that 'Covid championship' still rankle. Maybe that explains why every single Connacht SFC contest is there to be cherished; why Sunday's short hop to Carrick-on-Shannon and a quarter-final date with Leitrim really matters.

"The Covid year was kind of a real downer for myself personally that we didn't fulfil the fixture," says Cawley, harking back to early November, 2020, when a coronavirus outbreak in the Sligo camp culminated in the concession of their Connacht SFC semi-final to Galway.

"Too many lads were gone; it just wasn't feasible in the end.

"The more disappointing thing for me was it might have cost one or two lads their opportunity to play for Sligo. Say we had two more fit players or two more lads who didn't have Covid - the game goes ahead. They all play.

"Some of those lads didn't get to wear the Sligo jersey. They aren't involved in the panel anymore ... they never got the opportunity. They would have made their (championship) debuts that week."

Could Sligo have patched together a team to fulfil the fixture? Could they have been granted a week's grace by officialdom, especially in light of how Tyrone were dealt with the following summer? We are into the realms of what if.

"I don't know, to be perfectly honest," says Cawley in response to a suggestion that there was space in the calendar. "As a player group, we would have pushed back to say why can't the game be delayed?

"I don't know was it put back to Connacht Council or Croke Park? It didn't seem to come to fruition for us. I know if it was delayed a week, we would have had 12 guys back. Sure, it's a different scenario then all together.

"Look the way it was, the fear factor was there for all involved. If it did go ahead and more people caught Covid, the way the world was at the time ... ifs and buts at this stage."

No more than the 'ifs and buts' of Cawley's breakout season, 2010, when he started five consecutive SFC games at wing-back, beating the twin towers of Mayo and then Galway (after a replay) to reach a Connacht final where they were the fancied form team ... cue a one-point defeat to Roscommon. What happened next, a 19-point collapse to Down in the qualifiers, was perhaps inevitable.

"I was brought in for the 2009 championship but I didn't play that year. Sometimes I don't count it. Bit of a long road," he muses.

"I came in and made my debut (in 2010), we beat Mayo, then Galway after a replay. I was like, 'Jesus. This is going to happen every year!' It didn't work out like that, unfortunately.

"I don't think we approached that week (of the final against Roscommon) any different. It was probably one of those days, we had two or three chances to go ahead in the last few minutes. Just the width of the post or a fine margin didn't go our way.

"Donie Shine, in fairness, shot the lights out that day. He was kicking them from the sideline and everything."

Sligo would go on to lose further Connacht finals narrowly (to Mayo by two points in 2012) and ghoulishly (to Mayo by 26 in 2015). Even before the lost year of Covid, the team was struggling to remain relevant.

"We had a lot of squad turnover in those years as well. A lot of lads, 30 or a little older, decided they weren't playing anymore," the Coolera Strandhill clubman recounts.

"It was hard for Seán Carrabine and lads like that ... hard for them to come into that arena and be expected to perform to the levels expected in inter-county football. It was just one of those, grit your teeth and bear it. Hope it doesn't last too long.

"Look, the way we are going now, it has turned full circle. These lads are driving it on and we are moving in the right direction."

This is Tony McEntee's fourth season. "He has brought a good structure," says the squad's elder statesman of their Armagh boss. "He is a straight-talking guy but, equally, he is approachable."

From the foothills of a 20-point hammering by Mayo in the straight knockout 2021 championship, Sligo have made incremental progress: from third in Division 4 (2022) to Division 4 winners and Connacht finalists (2023) to fourth in Division 3 this spring, culminating in impressive last-day victory over eventual champions Westmeath.

Cawley reflects on last year's 14-point Connacht final loss and concludes that they paid Galway "too much respect - that was to our detriment. The All-Ireland series was a good experience but a steep learning curve by the time we played Dublin in the last game ... Dublin were just a different animal.

"It is a good carrot for us this year. We have a tough game against Leitrim first and then the winners of Galway and London which is equally tough. Look, a Connacht final is probably our goal for the season but we have two huge tests to get over first to make that happen."

At least this year, unlike 2020, destiny is in their own hands.