![]() O’Neill was joined on the squad by three-time All-Ireland senior winners Ryan McMenamin, Conor Gormley and Ciaran Gourley. A couple of years ago, Stephen O’Neill became the first inter-county footballer to win All-Ireland titles at minor, U-21, senior and Masters. For players who are no longer able to play at the elite level, there has always been the Masters (over 40s) competition. Munnelly was 40 when he departed in December. Some of the GAA’s greatest servants have all walked off the inter-county stage in the last few years in their late 30s Ryan McCluskey (Fermanagh), Dermot Brady (Longford), Michael ‘Brick’ Walsh (Waterford), Brendan Murtagh (Westmeath), Mark Breheny (Sligo), Ross Munnelly (Laois). There is no reason I can’t progress at this age.” Move on.’ When you think about it, it is ridiculous. “As soon as you are 30, ‘Oh he has lost a yard. “It happens in other sports but in hurling and the GAA, it is a million times worse,” said Horgan. Patrick Horgan admitted as much to Maurice Brosnan in these pages recently. “Because society thinks I should retire? Because when you get over 30 in the GAA they all think you should retire.” “I still feel I can do a job for Kerry and I still enjoy it, so why would I retire?” asked Donaghy. Kieran Donaghy was 34 in 2017 when he committed to Kerry for another year in 2018. It’s pointless trying to compare professional multi-million-dollar sportspeople with amateur inter-county GAA players, but there is a tendency within the GAA to categorise players once they pass a certain age threshold. And, similar to Brady, his decision-making, experience and insatiable hunger for success and excellence are the key to Cluxton’s longevity. Rigorous, smart conditioning can prevent a significant drop-off in performance. He doesn’t need to break records in the gym. But Cluxton, like Brady, isn’t a sprinter. Male athletes typically peak physically in their mid-to-late 20s, and then incrementally lose V02 max capacity for the rest of their lives. George Blanda was 48 but he was a kicker late in his career. Brady had retired the previous year before famously unretiring himself after 40 days.īrady, the most successful player in American football history with seven Superbowl titles, was the oldest quarterback to appear in an NFL game but he wasn’t the oldest player to appear on that stage. It was reminiscent in some ways of how hard Tom Brady found it to walk away before eventually retiring for good earlier this year at 45. Cluxton, who will be 42 in December, looked to have retired (without ever officially announcing it) until he sensationally returned to the Dublin set-up during the league. ![]() ![]() Stephen Cluxton though, is surely the oldest elite player to ever play in the All-Ireland series. Former Cavan goalkeeper Enda Sheridan was 52 when he lined out with the county’s hurlers in 1999. Leitrim hurling 'keeper Tommy McLoughlin played until he was 47 back in 2012. Mulhearne is surely the oldest player to ever make his debut, but he is not the oldest player ever to play inter-county. It was a completely different stage but Darren Mulhearne made his championship debut with the Waterford footballers in 2019 at 46, some 29 years after first being called up to the senior squad as a 17-year-old. Yet his record only lasted four years before being broken by Egyptian goalkeeper Essam El-Hadary, who played in the 2018 World Cup at 45. In 2014, Faryd Mondragón became the oldest professional soccer player to appear in a FIFA World Cup match at the age of 43. Goalkeepers definitely do have an advantage when it comes to longevity. Miura, who represented Japan’s national team 89 times, scoring 55 goals, is a freak of nature but he isn’t completely unique either Ezzeldin Bahader from Egypt currently holds the Guinness World Record for the oldest professional football player at the age of 74, after playing in a third division match in October 2020.īahader broke Israeli goalkeeper Isaak Hayik’s record, who had become the oldest professional player in April 2019 at the age of 73. In March 2017, Miura became the oldest player to score a goal in a professional competitive match, at 50 and 14 days old, beating Stanley Matthews’ 52-year-long record.
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