McKenzie wants to get back to intermediate football

He played in Luton with St Dymphna’s but his heart never left Bonniconlon. Richard McKenzie has been wearing the blue and navy for as long as he can remember. The landscaper knows nothing else - he doesn’t want to know anything else - that’s the way it is. 

“Bonniconlon is my club. It’s my love. Simple as that.” However, never winning anything - always trying to survive, does that lessen the love?

“Not at all. It's your club. You love your club. Last year, when we got relegated, it was horrendous. It was awful. You're there so long. We were competing at the wrong end of intermediate. We were competing to stay there, whereas everyone else was competing to win it. We needed to punch upwards a bit more. You have to believe. If you don't believe it, why bother your backside? I play football because I enjoy it. It's a competitive streak and I have that. I love it that way too. You're mad to compete and do your best for your club. That's what we wanted to do.

“Getting relegated was brutal. People often say, you should go down and try and come up next year. I always thought, that's mental. Junior is so competitive. Lots of teams couldn’t get out of it and that’s why we have to win the next day,” he added with a smile.

McKenzie and Bonniconlon soon learned that junior football was a big challenge. “It was savage. You have to play what's in front of you. If you don't beat them, you're out. That's the way we're looking at it all year. There’s a great buzz in the community now. There's flags from Bofield School all the way to the village. That's lovely to see and it’s alien to us. I was five in 1997 when Bonniconlon were in the intermediate final, so I can’t remember a thing about it. 

“There's a completely different buzz to it. The sidelines are a lot busier now. People are wanting to see us play. “When you're winning, people want to see you more. They want to see what's happening and how the players are going. It's their club as well. They're happy to see the players doing well. 

“We were devastated when we went down last year. There was no such thing as we had a big meeting and we said we need to do this, that and the other. We didn't need to say that. We knew in our hearts and souls that we had to come back up. You could be there in junior football for a lifetime. You might never get out of it again. 

“The players put the work in. In the gym trying to do everything right and the lads in management are mighty. You get your schedule for the week to know what you're doing. You know what you're doing. You need to know that kind of stuff for your life because everyone is so busy away from football. Management aren’t just there for the sake of it. They're hungry to win. You don't go into management or playing football for the sake of just hanging around.”

There’s no hanging around with McKenzie in any facet of life, particularly when it comes to football. He wants Saturday’s game to be his last in the Mayo Junior Championship.