So the jolly chubby man has come and gone. No, not Santa Claus.
Benny Tierney has left the stage, but I doubt if that will be the last I see of him. Come Championship-time, Down play Armagh in Páirc Esler, a match supporters from both counties will relish.
The clashes between these sides have always been seen as ‘friendly’ derbies. The funny thing about the rivalry is that in both counties you have a healthy scattering of blood from either side of the Clanrye River.
In my own family, for example, my mum was raised in Carrickcruppin, in a family steeped with a strong GAA background. That club had a very good championship-winning side in the late-’70s and early-’80s.
Down team-mates like Ronan Murtagh and Paul McCumiskey also came from similar blood lines on their maternal side. When Armagh were going well in the ‘Noughties’, their rivalry with Down was considered somewhat irrelevant in comparison to the derby status of an Armagh versus Tyrone game.
Why? Because Tyrone were a direct rival, a much bigger threat than Down. That’s what it comes down to on most occasions - who is considered the biggest threat. As a player, nothing gave me more pleasure than beating the Orchard county.
Towards the end of my inter-county career, we had the upper hand in our tussles, apart from 2011, when Armagh put us away in the Championship at the Athletic Grounds. We were coming off the back of our All-Ireland final loss in 2010, probably the biggest disappointment of our lives.
We had beaten Dublin in the National League in 2011 and generally played well in Division One, reaching the semi-finals. However, Cork had given us a bit of a trimming at that stage and seemed to be galvanised by beating us at Croke Park the year before.
The All-Ireland defeat was a big downer on reflection. The edge had gone in 2011. Yes, there were injuries and we had generally started back later than most teams, but it was becoming harder for us to play our natural game, such was the level of cynical stuff going on.
Dublin were masteros of it and as soon as you laid a ball off and went for the return, you were nailed. Moreover, referees were doing nothing. Just a few years later, the players are protected to the extreme.
There had been rumours on and off in 2011 about Marty Clarke heading back to the AFL. I think perhaps his head was already in Australia and while he wouldn’t confirm or deny the stories, you knew that his mind wasn’t on Down.
What Marty offered was a guarantee of four or five points a game from placed balls. Our Achilles heel before he came on the scene was the lack of a free-taker. One of the main things I learned in my time playing was how crucial the presence of a reliable free-taker is to a team.
For Down to beat Armagh next summer, they need to get all of their best players onto the field. Marty Clarke should be one of these players. Contrary to what some people think, Marty will never be the player he was a few years ago.
That said, he could still offer experience and a bit of calmness on the ball, particular given the way the game is now played. Modern football suits this ‘quarter-back’ role, something I think Clarke would relish.
When you have a reputation as a top player, you need to put your neck on the line, no matter how difficult it is week-in, week-out. You can cement your status in the game simply by successfully adapting the way you play as your career progresses.
Take, for example, how Colm Cooper and Sean Cavanagh have evolved as players in recent years. Despite having battled back from major injuries, they have been able to perform well at the highest level.
It is a testament to their physical and more importantly mental, toughness that they have overcome such adversity. Cooper and Cavanagh have been blessed with managers who recognised that they were changing as players and have expected variations in terms of their influence on a game.
As a manager, you have to accommodate your best players whatever way you can. Which brings us to the question of what age an inter-county player should quit football nowadays.
Is it when he stops enjoying it? When he stops making the team regularly? When the manager decides to drop him from the squad? Truthfully, it is never a good time for any player when he steps away from inter-county football.
At this time of the year, a significant number will be considering it. A good manager will be able to hold onto his experienced men. He will be able to convince them that they may not play every week, or from every minute of every match, but he will tell them that their influence on the panel is such that they need to go on for another year.
Keeping on old head fully on board will require strong lines of communication between player and manager, and also the medical team. The numbers in the over-30 club at county level seem to diminish by the year, and things are starting to follow suit at club level.
Is it because the 30-year-old is becoming less relevant or influential? I regret not being able to get more out of myself as I reached my 30s, and also wish managers had tried harder with me as well.
Things like foam rolling, yoga and core stability were just creeping into the GAA towards the tail-end of my career, but I can see I might have been able to squeeze another couple of years in at the top level had I had access to them.
I reand an interview with Sean Cavanagh recently, where he pointed out that being involved at inter-county level is all he has known. I would say it’s as much part of him, and players like him, as his arms and legs.
Every year, I look forward to the start of January and the days getting longer and the birds chirping louder. I love the smell of freshly-cut grass in the spring, the sound of a ball being kicked and the roar of a crowd in the stand.
I relish the controversy, the trials and the tribulations. Who will beat the Dubs? Will Down beat Armagh, and can either team make an impact and break Donegal and Tyrone’s stragnlehold on Ulster?
I know where I would love to be. On the field, influencing these matters. If only there was a DeLorean time machine that could reach 88mph. I’m away to watch Back to the Future. Again.
