Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes welcome home Tom Keogh
ULTIMATE PRICE: A toothless Tom Keogh enjoys Wagga Tigers' premiership back in September. Keogh lost his tooth in a last-quarter incident but has since had it reinserted. Picture: Les Smith
Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes will welcome back Tom Keogh next season.
After one year at rival Riverina League club Wagga Tigers, Keogh has decided to return to Mangoplah Sportsground.
Keogh made a surprise move to Tigers this year to play alongside his brother Will, and cousins Reid Gordon and Bailey Wileman.
The move paid off as Keogh played in his first premiership, alongside family.
But Keogh has become the sixth player to leave Tigers since their premiership and will don Goannas colours once again in 2020.
Tom Keogh (far right) with cousins Reid Gordon, Bailey Wileman and brother Will at Robertson Oval this year. Picture: Emma Hillier
MCUE coach Jeremy Rowe welcomed Keogh back.
"It's obviously always a wonderful thing when you can reunite past players with your footy club and in this case we've only had to wait 12 months to do it, which is really good," Rowe said.
"Tom comes back as an elite midfielder. Someone who is very familiar with the surroundings there and gives us something that we probably lacked last year. He does bring fairly explosive pace and ability for him to break the game open through that midfield third is something that we're really looking forward to bringing back into our line-up."
Rowe said it was significant to have Keogh back at the club after his unexpected departure in February.
Tom Keogh
"It's extremely important both from a practical perspective and an emotional perspective I suppose," he said.
"From the practical prospective, you bring such a high quality player back into our side and that's really important. But I guess what it represents is someone who has gone away for 12 months, been able to achieve what he wanted to achieve and felt that he wanted to come back to our footy club and be a part of what we're building.
"Tom's a very competitive character and as much as he's got some really strong friendships and ties to the footy club, and I think without wanting to speak for him, I don't think he would have come back if he couldn't see really positive things happening and the fact he's trusting of the fact that he's coming back to a go-forward club in a positive environment is a big thing for us."
Tom Keogh in full flight for Wagga Tigers. Picture: Les Smith
Keogh joins Ganmain-Grong Grong-Matong's Zac Wiencke and Charles Sturt University's Will Murray as off-season arrivals at MCUE.
The Goannas have lost however George Kendall (university), Tim Smith (East Wagga-Kooringal) and Blake Chapman (Belconnen) from this year's team.
MCUE finished fourth this season. They defeated Ganmain-Grong Grong-Matong in the opening week of finals before falling to Tigers in the first semi-final.
Keogh was unable to be contacted on Tuesday.
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