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DEIVIDAS Uosis laughs when Letterkenny comes up in conversation. This was back at the end of April, and one of the most dramatic days of one of the most dramatic Ulster championships as Down sensationally ousted defending provincial champions – and then All-Ireland favourites – Donegal. The midfield majesty of Odhran Murdock. Daniel Guinness going for broke when all logic said stick it over the bar. Miceal Rooney, not for the first time, as unlikely bear in the square; there were no shortage of magic moments to sift through at O’Donnell Park. But, before the ball had even been thrown in, something more than rumours of Michael Langan’s absence set tongues wagging, Because there, sandwiched between Peter Fegan and Ceilum Doherty in the Down pen-pics, was the name of the Lithuanian-born former Kerry minor goalkeeper who won an All-Ireland with David Clifford before going on to spend two years on the books of AFL outfit Brisbane Lions. For the previous few months, Uosis had been playing half-forward for Clann na Banna in Down’s second tier. Straight away, his phone started to ping. The laugh of it was, he wasn’t even in Letterkenny – “sure I couldn’t have played anyway because I hadn’t played championship” - though that doesn’t mean the tale is without truth. “I had been training with them… Conor Laverty rang me one day out of nowhere. “I didn’t really know who was talking, it was just this very strong sounding northern accent. And then Marty Clarke got on to me; I had a lot of involvement with Marty when I was going across to Australia. “I went in and I tried it anyway. It was tough because I’d come up and hadn’t played for a few months, so it was starting everything again, refreshing everything again and then getting to know the lads and the systems compared to Kerry. “Down football’s a bit different, tactically.” Alongside girlfriend Lukrecija - who is doing a Masters at Queen’s University – he had moved to Banbridge in September 2025 as a midway point between Belfast and Lukrecija’s homeplace in Monaghan, while Uosis is balancing studies in Templemore. He was invited to travel with the Down panel for the famous challenge match against Kerry, eight days before that date with Donegal, but by then Uosis had already decided to call time – for now. “I couldn’t play anyway, so I said maybe next year if I’m still up here. “I was training to kind of make up the numbers, and the quality of the training was very high, very intense, so it was benefiting me, but it was just a lot of travelling, and I had a lot of college work on. “So I had to pull the pin and we said if later on it works out, then it works out. I can’t really predict anything at the moment...” It has been that kind of career – in many ways, that kind of life – so far. Uosis was just four when his family swapped the small town of Kvėdarna for Dingle. Dad laimonas came over first to work in the construction industry, and was later joined by wife Inga and young Deividas. The rugged wildness of west Kerry couldn’t be any further removed from the world he had known. “It’s totally different,” he smiles, “Kvėdarna is inland, about 40 minutes from the coast, just forestry, flat land, farm work, where it’s all tourism around Dingle.” A second boy, Aivaras – now on a basketball scholarship at Carson-Newman University in Tennessee – arrived soon after, and straightaway the Uosis clan felt every bit a part of the Gaeltacht community into which they had been welcomed with open arms. “I started school and did everything through Irish… Irish is probably my first language. “And then once I met a few lads, I just started playing football from U6 all the way up, got in with Kerry development squads, North Kerry U12s, U14s, U16s, then minors. So football was always there, and I built up good bonds in the club. “Of course Lithuania is where our family is from, and we go back at least once a year, I still have grandparents and cousins there… coming to Ireland was probably supposed to be a short-term thing, but it’s ended up that we’re still here. “Dad was always in construction, he has started up his own company and he’s very busy with that, so my parents are enjoying what they’re doing. “My family just adapted and fell in love with the place - it was like we lived there all our lives. Just natural to us.” And while he dabbled in a bit of soccer at Kerry FC and the oval ball with Rugbaí Chorca Dhuibhne, where the 26-year-old still plays the odd game during the GAA off-season, Gaelic football became all-consuming. Playing outfield, Uosis was part of the Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne side – coached by then Kerry manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice – that defeated St Patrick’s, Maghera in the 2017 Paul McGirr Cup final. “Ah, Eamonn is class. “He’d be running from our training to Kerry training, and obviously it was great for us to have the Kerry manager with us. “Every manager has their own thing; Eamonn was just cool and calm. The school had never won it, and having him as a coach helped us big time.” The Dubs dominated the latter years of Fitzmaurice’s tenure but, five months after that McGirr Cup final, a new crop in green and gold offered hope for better days ahead. David Clifford’s name was already firmly on the lips of those in the Kingdom, but it was September 17, 2017 when the Fossa phenomenon forced himself into the national consciousness with a breathtaking 4-4 as Derry were dismantled. Uosis, though, was watching from a different perspective than he was used to, having been converted into a goalkeeper to make best use of his booming right boot. And, luckily for him, he was able to call upon his mum’s cousin, and Lithuania goalkeeping coach, Audrius Ramonas for some tips after stepping between the sticks. “That happened first in 2015 when we were playing in the county championship with Dingle minors - I was only 15 but I had a big boot on me. “The management were like, ‘you can’t really play outfield, you’re a bit young and small - do you want to try goal?’ So I did, we won the county championship that year as well with Dingle, and I just played in goal for that. “Thankfully it worked out for me at that time - I’d still prefer to have a run on the field, like; I hate being stuck in one position.” Still, his performances were strong enough to earn Uosis a spot on the First Electric Ireland minor football All-Star team, alongside the likes of Dublin’s Peadar Ó Cofaigh Byrne, Derry duo Conor McCluskey and Paudie McGrogan and, of course, Clifford. “I knew who he was alright, because he on the rise at that time. I played maybe a few games underage as well, West Kerry against East Kerry, so I knew already he was a good player at that age. “And then obviously when he got up to minors it just kicked off straight away. Thankfully I only had to play against him in training - at least he was on my team! Because in training he’d pull off some crazy shit, I can tell you that much. “Then the All-Ireland final, what more can you say, like? What he put on that day was just different.” After catching the eye of the Aussies with Kerry minors and U20s, as well as Pobalscoil Chorca Dhuibhne in McGirr Cup and Hogan Cup campaigns, the next stop was Brisbane. It wasn’t an easy call. Like so many of his contemporaries, Uosis had designs on moving up to the senior stage. But when the offer came, a chat with club-mate Mark O’Connor convinced him that his immediate future lay on the other side of the world. “Mark was like, ‘look, you only get one shot at this’, so I didn’t want to miss out. “And I loved it - it was unbelievable. Sure your day is: get up, go train, do recovery, back home, same thing next day, travel down to Melbourne, Sydney, wherever it was… good times.” Making the breakthrough, though, is no easy task. Already at a disadvantage when competing against men who have grown up with the sport, a niggling injury curtailed his ambitions. Uosis, though, gets frustrated when he sees talk of compensation clauses or other road-blocks being placed in the way of GAA players trying their hand in the AFL, even though Kerry continue to be hit harder than most as U20 pair Daniel Kirby and Evan Boyle weigh up offers. “The injury really set me back, that was kind of depressing, then it was Covid times in the first year so it was hard. “Lads are getting an opportunity to live a life like any English Premier League player does. They get their bodies looked after, the chance to compete in front of big crowds every week, it’s all looked after for you, and then if it doesn’t work out, you come back and the player is in better shape than he left because of all he was doing out there. “People get a bit much carried away, talking about this. I see it go around and I just scroll past I can’t read it. Because you’re giving a lad an opportunity to become a professional athlete. “You should look at the side of helping the player maybe improve, or the experience of living somewhere else.” The what-might-have-beens still crop up from time to time and, upon his return, Uosis took a year away from football; went travelling, got the head showered. Switched off sport altogether. Until another twist in the road brought him up north, and a switch that coincided with Dingle’s remarkable run to the All-Ireland club crown – a triumph Uosis watched from afar, and one which left him more proud than ever of a place he looks upon as home. “Ah, obviously it was hard at times,” he admits, “but I was glad because I grew up playing for the club. “The lads who played in the final, I played with most of them growing up. So it was good to see, because of the work that was put in – of course it was a little bittersweet, but it was huge for Dingle. “It was a long time coming too.” From Dingle, to Down Under, to Down, another chapter in a remarkable story is yet to be written. Uosis featured in Clann na Banna’s intermediate championship victory over Teconnaught on Monday, sending them through to Friday night’s quarter-final clash with Longstone in Kilcoo. It might not be Fitzgerald Stadium, or Croke Park, or the MCG but, for where Uosis is now, feeling a sense of belonging again is what really matters. “The club is literally a two-minute walk from our house, so it’s very handy. “They live and breathe football here. The club isn’t the biggest, but every game is a big game here, you get a lot of fans out, and everybody has been very welcoming… I’m really enjoying the football. “Luka finishes this month, I’m studying in Templemore, so we’ll probably be here until the end of the year at least anyway. After that, who knows?”