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.