He was glad to come home.
For a 24-year-old, Caolan Mooney has been through a lot. First bursting onto the scene as a 16-year-old Mourne minor star in 2009, he followed this up with back to back Hogan and McCrory Cup successes with his school, St. Colman’s College, Newry.
He was only just out of minor when he was called into the Down senior set-up, and he wasn’t long making his mark there.
As often happens with the cream of Ireland’s underage Gaelic Footballers, it was no surprise when the AFL clubs came calling.
It was 2011 when he made the move Down Under to join up with his county man Marty Clarke. He initially stunned managers and fellow players with his athleticism and his raw pace, which prompted Collingwood’s then recruitment manager Derek Hine to claim “he could seriously be anything.”
Three years, and just six senior appearances later, Mooney announced that he would be returning home to play football with Down and his club Rostrevor in 2014.
I have decided that I will be returning home to play Gaelic for my club an county, I have enjoyed my time @CollingwoodFC greatly.
— caolan mooney (@caolanmooney) September 3, 2014
Speaking at a recent AIB GAA event, the well built 24-year-old revealed why he was eager to return home, and it’s clear that he doesn’t look back on his AFL experiences too fondly.
He’s “50/50” on whether he enjoyed his time there.
“As a city and living there, it was brilliant. As a sport, it didn’t really get me excited to be brutally honest. It’s not as good as gaelic in my eyes,” added the Rostrevor club man.
“The first two years when I went, I was still naive, and I thought ‘this is brilliant I’m getting paid to kick a football.’ In my third year, I thought this wasn’t as enjoyable as I thought it was going to be.
“If I had of went out a bit older or if I had a bit of college experience. Being thrown out there and living away from home by yourself was a tough ask and by the third year I had my fill of it. I was sick of it and wanted to get home,” he said.
Surprisingly, Mooney admitted to have endured struggles with his fitness upon his return to Gaelic Football in Down. Many would presume that the fitness required in an AFL game would be similar to the demands of a Championship match, but according to Mooney, the extra weight he carried over there held him back when he came home.
“Probably just the speed of the game. (I had struggles with) The fitness coming home from Australia for off-season, playing club under-21s, I’d always find I’d be gassed after about fifteen minutes playing gaelic. It’s a different kind of fitness. I think it’s about getting yourself tuned into that.
“I’ve slimmed down a bit, I’ve shredded about 5/6 kilos for example. I think that took it’s toll on me, I didn’t need that weight. So I got myself trimmed down with some extra work with our Strength and Conditioning fella,” he added.
You get the impression that the main cause of his disappointment with Australia was that it wasn’t the GAA. The team-spirit, the camaraderie – It just didn’t come any where near comparing.
He feels the fact that players are getting paid is a big cause of this disconnection and warns the GAA away from it.
“Gaelic football is more about your passion. Aussie Rules, you’re there because you’re being paid to be there. They’re all competitors and they all want to win (In Australia) but a county team winning together is far better than what you’d win in Australia.
“You go home to your own houses in Australia, you’re all living in different suburbs. In a county team it’s more local, you’d be going out together and celebrating together. So if gaelic wants to go down that route of paying players, I think it would potentially ruin it,” he added.
Injuries played their part in his struggles in Australia. They persisted upon his return, too. An accumulation of these factors played a part in his decision to depart the Down senior panel in 2016.
“I came back injured, so I came back to Down only 50% fit, and I was trying to do everything all the other lads were doing, and I tore the hamstring and I repeated that again after Christmas,” he added with a shake of the head.
Expectations of a returning AFL star are often huge within their own counties, and he jokingly blames fellow county man Marty Clarke for this.
“Marty Clarke set the standard for all the boys returning. He got them to an All-Ireland final. I was put out of Ulster in the first round and then in the qualifiers. You have to be patient. Daniel Flynn came out and said that he’s only starting to adjust. It takes a while to get back into the swing of things,” he added.
After a positive year with Down in 2017 – they made it to an Ulster final and were unlucky to lose out to Monaghan in the qualifiers – Mooney sees plenty of potential in the county team for next year.
“There’s a good bit of youth there that has come through and experience. Hopefully this year a lot more guys will be blooded into Championship and it will push us on,” he said.
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