The Glory days of Andy Keogh and Shane Lowry - The Square Ball 13/7/22
HEALTHY WRAPS
Written by: Rob Conlon
If you ever need a confidence boost, walk down any street in
Australia wearing a Leeds United shirt. It won’t take long before a stranger
stops to compliment both your sartorial and life choices.
My sister lives in Perth, and both times I have visited her
I’ve met more people from Rothwell than anywhere else since I sold out and
crossed the divide of the River Aire into north Leeds. She grew up idolising
Jimmy-Floyd Hasselbaink and Alan Smith long before I caught the Leeds United
bug. When I stayed with her in 2016, we got our football fix by going to watch
Perth Glory, and encountered two former Leeds stars more in keeping with my
formative years supporting the club. Neither of them trampled on their
reputation by joining Scum or Chelsea. Sure, everything in Australia felt
expensive, but how can you put a price on getting to see Andy Keogh and Shane
Lowry in the flesh again?
My memories of this day are hazy. In terms of the
differences in football culture, what mainly sticks out was that the food
stalls on the concourse were selling something described as a ‘healthy wrap’.
My journalistic curiosity failed me. I ordered a Strongbow. While queuing for
the bar, I received a couple of ITK nods towards my replica of the 1992
title-winning home shirt. One man walked up, tapped me on the shoulder, and in
a comforting Yorkshire accent said, “I’ve got that shirt,” before walking
straight off again without saying another word.
My main memory is of how Keogh was adored like a footballing
rock star. He was already in his second spell at Perth following a short hiatus
playing in Thailand, having had to leave due to the Glory’s salary cap breaches
the previous year. (He had another gap year in Saudi Arabia and India before
returning for a third time in 2020.) When I saw Keogh play for Perth against
Central Coast Mariners, he was in the middle of an eight-match scoring streak
that dragged the side from the bottom half of the table and into the play-offs.
He scored twice in a 4-0 win, hit the bar with a header, and kept shooting from
distance whenever he touched the ball, like he knew he was the most threatening
player on the pitch.
All of his involvements were followed by a chorus of chants
singing his name. This was not the Keogh I remembered at Leeds, the striker we
made run around on the wing because he rarely looked like scoring. He had
obviously learned a lot from those games spent crossing for Luciano Becchio.
I’d like to say it wasn’t the Shane Lowry I remembered at
Leeds either, but I’ve tried my best not to remember Lowry at Leeds. Andy
Hughes strikes me as someone who likes to see the very best in others, but I’ve
never heard a more withering assessment of a former teammate than, when
watching back the Bristol Rovers promotion game with Jermaine Beckford during
lockdown, he refused to call Lowry by his name, referring to him only as “the
left-back” who offered us “nothing”.
In fairness to Lowry, he was a centre-back being played out
of position at Leeds. It was like we had six months of Jason Pearce trying his
best at left wing-back, but PearceDawg was only ever stuck out there for one
half of football. When Perth reached the play-offs, their form was credited not
to Keogh’s goals, but Lowry’s performances in the middle of defence. There was
a player wearing the number 6 shirt for Central Coast who I assumed was another
lumbering centre-half doing a similar impression of Lowry and Pearce’s take on
the full-back role. He was one of the most uncomfortable footballers I’ve ever
seen. I’ve just googled his name, and it turns out he was actually just a
lumbering winger who played left-back quite regularly. Perhaps they gave him
the number 6 as a hint of where he ought to have been playing. He was sent off
for two bookings shortly after half-time.
Central Coast were hoping Luis Garcia, a Champions League
winner with Liverpool, could be their equivalent to Keogh. Within five minutes
of the first red card, Garcia — who had already retired once — had managed to
collect two bookings of his own despite barely touching the ball all game. In
lieu of their marquee player, I was at least watching a historically terrible
team. They ended the season with three wins in 27 games, collecting the fewest
points in the club’s history, and setting A-League season records for games
lost, goals conceded, and worst goal difference. They didn’t keep a single
clean sheet. Nick Montgomery, who grew up in Leeds, supported the club, and
played in the academy before having his mind poisoned by Neil Warnock at
Sheffield United, was the Mariners’ captain. He gave away a penalty that Keogh
scored. The following season, Central Coast appointed another former Leeds
great, Paul Okon, as their manager. They are now managed by Nick Montgomery.
For Keogh, Perth has become his adopted home. He is now the
club’s head of recruitment, and became an Australia citizen in 2020. But even
after all this time in Perth, I still remember the way he kept looking into the
stands during the match, spotting Leeds shirts, and beating his fist against
his chest in salute. He can spend the rest of his life looking after Shane
Lowry on the other side of the world, but home is where the heart is.