Lion-hearted Owens an inspiration

WE’VE had four weeks to digest the remarkable story that is Barry Owens’ return to football but, like that movie you’ve watched time and again, his is a tale you can’t hear enough.

Last January, Owens underwent surgery on a minor heart defect which kept him out of Fermanagh’s league campaign in Division Three and their opening Ulster Championship game against Monaghan.

With Derry looming in the semi-final last month the word from the camp was that the two-time All Star’s recuperation was on course but that he would have to wait a while longer to return to football.

Then came that Saturday evening in Omagh. Derry were still in the lead when Owens made his unexpected entrance after 53 minutes but their advantage had been crumbling steadily since some time before the interval.

Fermanagh’s own square was safely under lock and key by then so Malachy O’Rourke pointed his first-choice full-back in the direction of the opposition penalty area, a location he had frequented now and again while on duty with his club Teemore. Less than 30 seconds later the ball was in Barry Gillis’ net after Owens rose above the Derry keeper and full-back Kevin McCloy to fist Fermanagh into the lead. The rest is history.

“It was one of the things we had talked about and, as the game unfolded, we just felt it was open to a bit of impetus, which we needed,” O’Rourke explains. “It was like a fairytale the way it worked.

“You couldn’t have imagined he would score with his first touch. People didn’t realise that he has played some club football at full-forward so he isn’t a complete stranger to that end of the field.

“The way he attacked the ball showed that but then he does that at full-back as well. It was a great bonus for all the lads on the panel because he is such a popular figure and such a modest lad. It is great to have him back.”

Much of the glory deflected O’Rourke’s way, firstly for his supposed cleverness in ruling Owens out of contention all week and, secondly, for throwing him in at full-forward just when the side’s momentum seemed to be flagging.

O’Rourke has proven himself to be a wily character with Loup, Errigal Ciaran, Cavan Gaels and now Fermanagh but he is firm in refusing any plaudits for his role in the semi-final’s most dramatic of moments.

“We weren’t telling any lies about (Owens’ readiness). People don’t appreciate what he did go through. He did have a serious heart operation. We had to go on medical advice and we didn’t want to rush him back at any stage.

“It was a step by step process. He was coming on slowly but surely and the week before the Derry game was the first time that we thought about putting him in. When we mentioned it to him he said he was ready for it.”

Owens echoed his manager’s testimony in the Healy Park tunnel immediately after the Derry game when he spoke of how hard the previous few months had been on his family.

The operation was more complicated than anyone in the Fermanagh camp had been told or knew at the time, a fact that makes the speed and effectiveness of his return all the more inspiring.

That said, the heroics took their toll. A few training sessions and the odd run-out with Teemore were the only energy reserves he had stored up prior to the semi-final and restocking the bank has been a slow process.

“Even though he only played 15 or 20 minutes, I was talking to him the day after it and he was very tired and sore. It took an awful lot out of him and it has just been a case of letting him recuperate this last while. Hopefully, that will bring him on and he will be able to do a little bit more for us the next day.”

A shy, retiring type who describes himself as ‘an oul’ country lad’, it was no surprise when Owens wasn’t among the half dozen players put forward by Fermanagh for their recent press night. Revisiting the last six months can’t be top of his agenda right now. If ever there was someone who could understand what Owens had gone through then it is the county captain this year, Marty McGrath, a man who has also had to endure a health scare.

The Ederney man underwent two laser heart surgeries in two months in Dublin’s Mater Hospital in the spring of 2006 before being hospitalised again after being struck by a digger in a work accident a year later.

“It’s good to see Barry back. He has been through a tough time but he still has a lot of work ahead. He was fortunate to be on the end of a shot, cross, whatever you want to call it but he is committed and he is not afraid to put himself in. At the start of the year we knew he was going to be missing and so we just had to get on with it but you can’t dwell on any players. It is a team game. Barry is a talented boy and hopefully he will have a big influence in the final, particularly after all he has been through.”

McGrath is testament to how a player can put a litany of misfortune to one side and pick up where he left off. His input around the middle of the park this season has been gargantuan and it is getting bigger with every game.

When he jokes about the digger being put back to work last January, you know he has put the past behind him.

Fermanagh will attempt to make history by claiming their first Ulster senior football title tomorrow. Against a team like Armagh, it is a tall order, but Owens and McGrath have already shown it is possible to beat much longer odds.

“It makes you appreciate when you do put on the jersey that you have an opportunity to play for Fermanagh,” says McGrath. “It could be your last game. You never know what’s around the corner.”