Clerkin says provincial finals not losing lustre in North

ONE OF the stock claims each passing summer is that the provincial championships don’t matter as much any more.

Sligo exposed that as the lie it is last Sunday, but Dick Clerkin didn’t need events in Dr Hyde Park to confirm what he already knew.

A member of the Monaghan panel since Jack McCarville blooded him as a minor back in 1999, the Currin midfielder had never been part of a team to win a game in the Ulster Championship until the county’s defeat of Down in Newry last month.