Stephen Cluxton exits without fanfare but leaves lasting mark on the game

The Dublin legend defined an era and redefined a position by his willingness and openness to learn and borrow from others who transcended their sport

Stephen Cluxton. Picture: INPHO/Tommy Dickson

So now we know for sure. He’s gone, never to return. On the same weekend that Henry Shefflin put to bed any idea of Joe Canning lining out again in his county’s colours, so did Dessie Farrell regarding the possible availability of Stephen Cluxton playing for Dublin in 2022. As Farrell put it, “No fanfare, no official announcements from him, but Stephen won’t be involved this year.”

Farrell stopped short of using the R word but that’s what’s happened here: Stephen Cluxton is retired from inter-county football. We may well never see Paul Mannion or Jack McCaffrey again in a Dublin shirt, this now being Mannion’s second consecutive season sitting it out and McCaffrey giving a third consecutive championship a skip, but the pair of them still aren’t due to turn 30 until next year; there is a slim prospect that they return a la a Brian Corcoran when he was of a similar vintage. Cluxton turned 40 just before Christmas. You can’t — or at least don’t get to — come back at 41 after a two-season hiatus, not even him. Farrell told the assembled reporters after last Saturday’s game in Tullamore that out of respect to Cluxton “we need to let him live his life”, to move on, essentially, from Dublin. But in adding “and we need to do our own thing”, he hinted that Dublin needed to move on too, from the Cluxton drama whatever about Cluxton himself.