Hayes has no regrets as Banner days end
IN A week where David Clarke and Stephen Cluxton peppered most football conversations, one of their contemporaries walked away yesterday almost under the cover of darkness.
Joe Hayes, Clare’s 35-year-old goalkeeper, called time on an inter-county career which began in October 2001 — the same year that All-Star combatants Clarke and Cluxton also started out — and finished last July when the Banner went down defiantly to Mayo in a third round qualifier.
When Cluxton and Clarke eventually hang up their goalkeeping gloves they will be able to look back on decorated careers, but for Hayes the glory has been in the journey.
A regular since 2005, the defeat to Mayo marked his 104th and final appearance for the county but such is football life on the margins that he had to wait until three years ago — a Division 4 League final defeat to Tipperary — to grace Croke Park.
In the end, his career ended with something of a flurry — two more Croke Park appearances followed last year, an All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Kerry and his career high-point, a thrilling Division 3 final win over Kildare.
Add in two McGrath Cup wins — both in seasons when Kerry and Cork did not enter — and that is the modest haul of a career that spanned the skeletal bones of two decades.
But not only has he no regrets, the Clare veteran sought to defy his aching body to come back for one more season before he accepted medical advice last month that a damaged hip could take no more.
‘I had my hip operated on in 2013 and all that did was buy me a little bit of time,’ he admitted yesterday.
‘The issue started to resurface in the last 12 to 18 months and I was getting constant physio throughout the year.
‘I was going to go back and give it one more go but I went down to a consultant in Waterford in the last two weeks and on his advice it was a non-runner. I am in a good bit of pain with it so I think it is the right decision.
‘I would never be in pain when I play, but I was always hurting the day after,’ he revealed.
It invites an obvious question, even allowing for the resurgence in Clare’s fortunes under Colm Collins’ management, why seek to play through pain for so little obvious gain?
‘Football was a very important part of my life since I was brought up as a young fella in Lissycasey and at times it was the most important thing in my life before I got married and had kids, when it became the second most important thing.
‘I kept going because I enjoyed it and if I wasn’t injured I would have kept going.’
In all, he played under eight different managers — Pat Begley, Donie Buckley/Michael Brennan, Páidí Ó Sé, Frank Doherty, Michael McDermott, Mick O’Dwyer and Collins.
It is under the latter, who has taken them from Division 4 to 2 in three years, overseen their survival in Division 2 this season and led them to that ground-breaking last eight appearance in 2016 that they have soared.
‘I don’t think that people fully realise the scale of what he has achieved. He has put the pride and belief back into Clare football and when he finally walks away, I think that the county will forever be indebted to him.’
Yet, Hayes does not share Collins’ view on the Championship structure — the Clare manager has called for the provincial system to be stood down on a trial basis to allow lower tier counties a chance to breathe.
But Hayes insists that taking away the provincials would also take away the hope that Clare players still nourish.
‘Look, I watched the championship draw recently and I won’t lie by saying that I was not on the edge of my couch.
‘It was the same draw as last year [they play Limerick for the right to play Kerry] and it would not incentivise you to come back. But that’s the draw and I don’t think the answer is to simply drop the provincials.
‘I know that remains the goal for all the players, especially the older ones in our group, and if you take it away what are you left with?’ he argues.
Instead of seeking relief through structural change, Clare must look hard at themselves.
This year they led and outplayed both Kerry and Mayo in the opening half of their championship games before fading away.
‘You can put that down to a lack of experience but that also becomes a bit of an excuse in itself.
‘I think we have reached the stage now when we are in that position that we just have to see it out.’
‘If I wasn’t injured I would have kept going’