Dermot Earley – as close to perfection as a man can be

DERMOT EARLEY dashed our every childhood dream, and yet we can never recall feeling any resentment towards him.

Our memories now are of all those Mayo-Roscommon clashes of the late 1970s following a wearyingly familiar pattern: Mayo starting off all guns blazing, maybe a Joe McGrath goal to inspire hope we knew we shouldn’t really entertain, and then the inevitable, inexorable Roscommon rally in the final ten minutes, leading to yet another forlorn journey home.

And, each time, Dermot Earley, bestriding McHale Park or Dr Hyde Park like a Boy’s Own hero, so elegant he shouldn’t be durable, so durable he shouldn’t be elegant, a man as close to perfection as a man can be.