MARTIN SHEEN
Ex-meath ace Joe sees no reason why Clarke can’t shine between posts
JOE SHERIDAN says that he sees no reason why Martin Clarke can’t make a success of his shock return as a goalkeeper.
The Irish News revealed that Clarke, who is part of Conor Laverty’s Down management team, is now back among the playing ranks, 13 years after he last lined out for the county.
The An Riocht clubman, now 36, made a huge impact with Down in 2010 after he parked his AFL career with Collingwood, though he returned to the Melbourne-based club after the 2011 season and never played for the county again.
Indeed, having contracted Addison’s disease, a condition which causes extreme fatigue, his second coming with Collingwood never really took off and he finished playing football altogether some years ago before making a brief return with his club last year.
However, playing between the posts is obviously less taxing on the body and it’s easy to see how Clarke could excel in the position.
Former Meath forward Sheridan received a surprise recall to the county panel ahead of the 2017 season as a goalkeeper by then manager Andy Mcentee and, though he played in a couple of O’byrne Cup games, he was largely understudy to Paddy O’rourke before stepping away at the end of that year.
He said: “You see the keepers coming up the pitch now but Marty’s an extremely talented footballer and he could play a role like that anyway.
“He’s agile, he’s fit and I’m guessing he can play in goal as well and make a few saves and his distribution would
Marty is a very talented footballer with incredible distribution. The keepers are all up the pitch now..
be incredible.
“There was very little fly keepers back seven or eight years ago. It started with Niall Morgan, Rory Beggan brought it on and now every keeper is nearly doing it.
“Stephen Cluxton did it to a small degree when he was with the Dubs four or five years ago but he never really came out as far as the keepers are coming out now.”