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Dick Clerkin announces retirement from inter-county football

Monaghan and the GAA's longest serving footballer Dick Clerkin has called time on his inter-count...



Dick Clerkin announces retirem...
Football

Dick Clerkin announces retirement from inter-county football

Monaghan and the GAA's longest serving footballer Dick Clerkin has called time on his inter-county career.

Having made 169 senior appearances for Monaghan, the 34-year-old revealed in Tuesday's Irish Examiner that last season would be his last in his county's colours. 

Clerkin was the last remaining player to have made his debut in the 1990s. He first togged out for Monaghan against Cavan in September 1999. He retires with two Ulster medals in 2013 and again in 2015.

"Discussing it with my wife Alison at length over the past few months, we both agreed that, for various reasons, it was time to move on," he said. "Crucially it feels right, but if I’m honest I knew long before now.

"A qualifier defeat to Longford in Clones marked my final day with Monaghan. With the boys struggling with the after-effects of a gruelling two-game battle with Donegal in the weeks previous, I watched on helplessly as a Longford ambush unfolded. 

"Making way for youth, I watched the final sub being brought on ahead of me. I knew there and then I was unlikely to be togged out for Monaghan again."

You can read the full piece in Tuesday's Irish Examiner.

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