WHEN the ball is thrown in at Brewster Park on Saturday night, a familiar figure will pace the line with the kind of intensity always summoned on the other side of the chalk. The first game of the Ulster Championship, Tyrone – neighbours, All-Ireland champions and, for 70 minutes at least, sworn enemies.
These were the kind of days Ryan McCluskey, the player, lived for. Across 19 seasons, by the end of which he was the country’s longest-serving inter-county player, the biggest occasions often brought out his very best.
Quick, athletic, tenacious, and blessed with a defensive sixth sense that could sniff out danger before it arrived, his battles with some of the best forwards in the country were often a case study in containment.
By 2018 though, at 37, he knew it was finally time to go.
The Ernemen were in the middle of a Rory Gallagher revolution, one that would bring promotion to Division Two and Arlene Foster to Clones on Ulster final day. But McCluskey’s on-field involvement was minimal.
“I probably outstayed my welcome by a couple of years…”
Fermanagh had moved on, now he had to as well.
Yet four years later, here he is, part of Kieran Donnelly’s backroom team as the Erne County plot an Ulster Championship upset for the ages when the Red Hands roll into Enniskillen.
The twitchiness, the nervous energy, the adrenaline, it’s all there, just the way it used to be.
Making the crossover from player to coach is seldom straightforward, especially when you’ve been on the other side for so long.
McCluskey plunged straight into management with Beragh and loved his three years at the Tyrone club, but when your county calls, you listen.
The transition, though? It’s still a work in progress.
“I would be quite animated at the best of times, from my on-pitch days, so you’d have thought off the pitch it would’ve been easier. But there’s that control element… it was definitely easier playing.
“I know a lot of ex-players who have gone into management would say the same because you can affect the game when you’re playing, where you have very little control when you’re on the sideline.
“Still, there’s been a few nights in training where I was nearly asking Kieran or Fergal [Quinn] the trainer, and I have jumped in and out of the odd drill…. I don’t know that I was asked to jump in, I maybe just stepped in myself.
“I’ve always loved everything about that side of training. I know certain players might come out and be critical of the amount of training or the levels it has gone to, but I thoroughly enjoyed it over the years and I thoroughly enjoyed seeing how the game evolved as well.
“When you’re playing for so long you’re nearly regimented by the whole thing, so I was glad to get back into it. I did miss it.”
And that’s why, when the curtain eventually came down on his county career, the walls started to close in. From everything to nothing, just like that.
Opinions continue to spring forth the longer the GAA-GPA stand-off over expenses rumbles on, and McCluskey would have no issue backing the radical proposal put forward by Donal O’Neill - one of the founding members of the players’ body – to refuse to play in televised games.
“He said players need to take a harder stance, and if it means playing games behind the eyes of the media, so be it. I would support that.
“It’s important to make your point.”
But McCluskey’s appreciation for the GPA runs deeper than strength of feeling regarding the current impasse. When he was trying to make sense of life after football, they were there. He will never forget that.
“Whatever has been said about the GPA, and outside of what’s going on at the minute, they have played a part in my own life.
“I was fortunate to play for so long, that transition when you’re as full on with something and it takes up so much of your life, then you’re stepping into nearly nothing… that’s difficult. More difficult than I expected really.
“Even going back to your body shape, your body type, what you’re doing in the gym – everything changes. You might be dropping weight, going up in weight, there’s a physical side but it’s also a massive mental change in what your habits and routines are. There’s a big void left, so it was important that I reached out to them.
“I got some help and guidance in terms of business support but, to be honest, that was only a part of it. At that stage I was still coming to terms with the loss of my father two or three years before – I’d never really done anything about it, then I started doing a bit of work with the GPA.
“The support they gave me was massive, and it probably wasn’t in the context I was looking for at the time. I’ll never forget some of the meetings I had with a fella, Fran O’Reilly, a kind of a peer-mentor role.
“But it was the helping hand I needed at the time and I’ve always been really appreciative of that. The GPA do a lot of work, a lot of stuff that maybe isn’t highlighted.
“Maybe players don’t come out enough and talk about those things – I certainly haven’t spoken before about the help I received at a difficult time. Maybe they don’t sell themselves in that way, so lessons could be learnt.”
Fast forward to the here and now though, on the eve of battle, and McCluskey is in a good place.
Focus – the gym he opened with Cathal Beacom pre-Covid - has come out the other side of the most challenging couple of years imaginable for anyone in the health and fitness industry. In a few weeks the family will travel to Stoke-on-Trent with eldest daughter Eva-Rose when she represents Splitz Gymnastics Club in regional finals.
Football remains hugely important, and he never wants that to change. But it isn’t everything.
This latest challenge is as close as he will ever get to the life he once knew and, having been a part of the inter-county scene until relatively recently, there were other matters to consider too before coming onboard.
Kieran Donnelly is a former county team-mate from way back, but so too are several of those still donning the green jersey. It’s a delicate dynamic, and one that doesn’t always work.
“Obviously from a managerial point of view there are lines and boundaries for everyone, so I can’t be stuck in the middle of things. You’re on the other side of the fence now.
“But listen, I shared some great days with those lads, I have brilliant memories on the pitch and off the pitch as well. The lads have been brilliant from the get-go, it’s probably something I was conscious of coming in too - that familiarity. But anything we’ve asked of them or challenged them about has been adhered to.
“I believed as a player when I played alongside these lads and I’ve serious belief in where we are at the moment. I’m just hoping we can push the whole thing on and improve this side as best we can.”
Going in as huge underdogs suits Fermanagh’s mentality down to a tee.
Having shown steady signs of improvement during a Division Three campaign when promotion proved elusive, the Ernemen know that - with most observers already looking ahead to a Tyrone-Derry derby clash while Fermanagh pick up the pieces in the Tailteann Cup - Saturday represents a free shot at the current All-Ireland kingpins.
Nobody would relish the job more than Ryan McCluskey.
“We know the pedigree of what we’re playing, how good a side they are. But any time we’ve went out, we’ve always felt we could battle and scrap with any side.
“No matter who you are, nobody wants to be second best – we certainly don’t want to be second best on Saturday. We want to put up that challenge on the day and try and come out the right side of the battle.
“We have serious belief in these players, everyone has conducted themselves really well. It’s not every day you’re playing the All-Ireland champions at your home ground in the first game of the Championship, and we want it to be a real big occasion for everybody.
“If you can’t get up for that, then what’s the point? This is what it’s all about. This is why you play.”
