New Dublin boss Ger Brennan has confirmed that Stephen Cluxton will operate in his backroom only in 2026 but stopped short of confirming the veteran goalkeeper’s actual retirement from playing duties.
Cluxton, who will turn 44 this winter, was a virtual ever present for Dublin again in 2025, lining out in all but one of their Championship games.
He has since been named in Brennan’s management team, which also includes former Dublin stars Dean Rock and Denis Bastick, along with Professor Niall Moyna.
Speaking to the media for the first time this afternoon, Brennan said that Martin Kennedy will be the group’s ‘lead athletic development trainer’ while Graham Norton, who previously aided Brennan when involved with Louth last summer, will team up with Kennedy in this area.
News of Cluxton’s involvement in the management team brought inevitable questions about his playing career and whether he has finally hung up the gloves for good having previously sat out the 2021 and 2022 seasons.
“He won’t be playing, he is there 100 percent as a coach/selector,” said Brennan.
“His duties extend beyond goalkeeping. There’s a great goalkeeping coach there, Josh Moran, and he’s going to stay in that role and Stephen will be looking at the bigger picture.
“Having played with Stephen and Denis and Dean over the years, obviously when I finished up, those lads went on to five, eight, nine All-Irelands respectively, but their ability to read the game helped to make us what we were and certainly towards getting over the hump in 2011 and what we were subsequently.
“They were like having coaches on the pitch, from a playing point of view, so to have their expertise now off the field, given what they gave to the county on the field, they’re massive additions to the setup.
“But Stephen 100 per cent is part of the management team.”
Asked specifically if Cluxton has actually retired from playing for Dublin, Brennan smiled.
“Some players, me being one of them, like to make announcements and Stephen being another type of player, he’s probably not one for announcements but he’s definitely not part of the playing group, he’s fully part of the management group and if you can get him to use the word retirement, fair play to you!” said Brennan, who guided Louth to a breakthrough Leinster title success last summer.
Cluxton will go down as one of the game’s greatest ever players as one of just three nine-time All-Ireland winners, along with Michael Fitzsimons and James McCarthy.
He captained Dublin for seven of those wins and, in a playing capacity, has been credited with revolutionising the goalkeeping position with his kick-out creativity and ability to drill long-range points from placed balls.
Brennan said he didn’t know if Cluxton was going to make himself available as a goalkeeper again in 2026, prior to being asked to be a coach/selector.
“I honestly don’t know, is the answer,” said Brennan.
“When I was appointed, obviously I had a small bit of homework done in advance of the appointment, to check the appetite of the guys and that was the genesis of it.
“From there we had a couple of follow up chats and he’s just keen to...he has a lot of learning, even from last year, in terms of what was good and areas for improvement and he’s just keen to try to help bridge that gap and improve on last year’s setup. But I don’t know, I didn’t ask him.”
Brennan agreed that Cluxton brought huge creativity to his goalkeeping role with Dublin over three different decades.
“I think back to Shane Ryan of Naomh Mearnog and Stephen Cluxton, and Clucko dinking balls out with his left foot from the Canal End over to the Cusack Stand side to Shane Ryan,” said Brennan, recalling the late 2000s.
“So I think of those two lads, Stephen and Shane, they certainly developed that synergy in terms of trying to be a bit more creative and possession-based from our kick-outs.
“Pat (Gilroy) then came in with Mickey (Whelan) and the work we would have done with the club was more of a possession-based opportunity from a kick-out, as opposed to the ball just becoming a 50-50. So I suppose the whole thing kind of evolved from there.
“Off the field, every decision he makes is with Dublin GAA in mind and that’s something which certainly helped the group get to where it got to under Pat and obviously Jim (Gavin) and then Dessie (Farrell) subsequently.
“So having someone like him to remain part of the setup-up, albeit in a coaching capacity, it’s great to have him there.”
