Dick Clerkin: ‘I got as much as I could out of it’

It was late spring when the first withdrawal symptom sprouted like a new leaf on a tree.

By then, five months had already fallen into the pile of passing time since the day Dick Clerkin announced his retirement from inter-county service with Monaghan on the back of a career that spanned 17 seasons, 179 games and a lifetime of memories.

Six rounds of the league had swung by before that and he had felt nothing. Then the Dubs brought their bewitching act to Clones and Malachy O’Rourke’s side pinned them to the wall until deep in the second half only for the city boys to find a means of converting defeat into victory.