10 BEST GAA COMEBACKS
From Keaveney to Kennelly, the GAA has seen its fair share of dramatic career revivals
THE universal joy which greeted Tiger Woods’s triumph in Augusta last weekend served to remind that there is not a more seductive line in sport than a great comeback.
All that Woods had achieved in an extraordinary career is likely to be reduced to a backdrop illuminating what some will peddle as a tale of redemption.
Of course, his success also teased the argument about whether it was the greatest sporting comeback of all time, but every sport coughs up stories of stars who thought they had left it all behind but came back to conquer one final time.
The GAA is not shy on that front. Here, Sportsmail recalls 10 of the greatest comebacks in Gaelic games.
1 JIMMY KEAVENEY Dublin
The story is well-worn but it still has not lost any of its wonder.
After an underwhelming firstround win over Wexford in the 1974 Leinster Championship, Dublin boss Kevin Heffernan was lamenting the lack of a free-taker in the company of a 10-year-old supporter, who enquired, ‘What about Jimmy Keaveney?’
Keaveney, then aged 28 and resigned to never adding to his 1965 Leinster medal, had retired the previous year but one call from Heffo was enough.
It would have a transformative impact not just on Dublin but on Gaelic football, with Keaveney kicking Dublin to three All-Irelands in four years, picking up three All-Stars as well as being twice named footballer of the year by the time he retired for the second and final time in 1978.
2 BRIAN CORCORAN Cork
One of the greatest hurling talents of all time, it was the manner of his retirement in 2001 that shook the GAA world.
The two-time player of the year quit the game completely — club and county — but he returned to Erin’s Own in 2004 and immediately caught the eye of the Cork management.
He was reinvented as a full-forward to some effect and he memorably hit the final score in that year’s All-Ireland final as the Rebels cruised to a comfortable win over Kilkenny, and he picked up his third All-Star.
Another All-Ireland would follow 12 months later. At the end of 2006, a time when he was being touted as Cork’s captain in waiting, he retired for a second and final time.
3 MICK O’DWYER Kerry
The staying power of what is undoubtedly the most remarkable career in the GAA — one that spanned an incredible seven decades in the inter-county game — was evident in 1964 when Mick O’Dwyer broke both his legs and still lined out in that year’s AllIreland final.
Dogged by injury, he retired in 1966 but returned in 1968 with dramatic effect. He would win two more All-Ireland medals, bringing his final tally to four. He was also named footballer of the year in 1969.
4 DINNY ALLEN Cork
An inter-county football career which began in 1972 looked all over when he was dropped from the panel in 1986. However, he was recalled two years later at the age of 36 by his Nemo Rangers clubmate Billy Morgan.
It would end in disappointment as Cork lost the 1988 final to Meath, but Allen was persuaded back for one final season which would be his crowning glory.
He captained the team in 1989 to the Sam Maguire. That success was all the sweeter for Allen after he missed out on Cork’s previous win in 1973 when he’d been dropped from the panel. The suspicion at the time was that he was being punished by the county board for his status as an FAI Cup winner with Cork Hibernians earlier that season.
5 MARTIN FURLONG Offaly
It is easily forgotten that Offaly’s most-decorated goalkeeper — he is a three-time All-Ireland winner and a four-time All-Star — was deemed not good enough in the mid-1970s and was dropped from the panel.
Eugene McGee arrived as manager in 1977 and recalled Furlong — a back-to-back All-Ireland winner in 1971 and 1972. It was a decision that would pay-off handsomely in 1982, Furlong saving a penalty in the final after which he was named man of the match. He also went on to pick up the player of the year award.
6 MICKEY WHELAN Dublin
In November 1997, after losing to Offaly in a National League game, Whelan was the target of abuse from Dublin supporters and stepped down as manager. He had inherited All-Ireland champions two years previously but struggled to make any impact on a dressing room that never got behind him. Fast forward 14 years and Whelan, then 72, was back on the Dublin sideline as a coach under Pat Gilroy, who he managed to an All-Ireland club title in 2008, as they were crowned All-Ireland champions.
7 TADHG KENNELLY Kerry
No GAA comeback yarn has ever boasted a carbon footprint the size of this one.
Kennelly, a gifted minor with Kerry, spent eight years playing Australian Rules with Sydney Swans, when he returned home in 2009 with the expressed desire to emulate his late father, Tim, by winning an All-Ireland with the Kingdom.
It was a long shot but it paid off in spades. In the process, he became the only player to ever win an AFL Premiership and AllIreland medal, and he made such an impact that he was also honoured with an All-Star before returning to the professional game.
8 STEPHEN O’NEILL Tyrone
In the run up to the 2008 All-Ireland final against Kerry, Mickey Harte called his players to a meeting where they agreed to the return of O’Neill to their panel.
Frustrated by a run of injuries,
he had retired in 2007 and his recall, without having trained or played with the team, for an All-Ireland final was unprecedented.
And he did not have to wait long for action, coming onto the field in the 25th minute as a replacement for the injured Colm McCullagh, and while he failed to score he was involved in the build-up to Tommy McGuigan’s match-winning goal.
Even so, he declined to accept his All-Ireland medal.
9 MICHAEL McCARTHY Kerry
A reluctant full-back, McCarthy was perhaps the most under-rated of the Kerry stars of the noughties — if that is possible given his status as a threetime All-Star.
When he unexpectedly retired after winning his third All-Ireland medal in 2006, he left a gap that took some filling.
Midway through the 2009 Championship, with Kerry hopelessly out of sync, he answered Jack O’Connor’s call but on the proviso he would not be shoehorned back into his old fullback slot.
Instead, he slipped in at centreback and, in his presence, Kerry’s form and fortunes flipped to the point that when it was all over, he had a fourth medal in his pocket.
10 NOEL McGRATH Tipperary
The GAA world was stunned in April 2015 when news emerged that the Tipperary ace had undergone surgery to treat testicular cancer. Four months later, he came off the bench in the Premier County’s All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Galway.
And that comeback from illness would be crowned in a fitting manner when he won his second All-Ireland medal in 2016.