Irish Daily Star - Inside Sport
CLARKE: LEAGUE FINAL WILL BE SAM HELP
DAVID ClARKE was a schoolboy, and Mayo’s sub goalkeeper, the last time they played Galway in a NFl final, in 2001.
His leaving Cert was fast approaching but having been part of what was, at that time, a rare Mayo victory at Croke Park, he was spared classes in St Muredach’s, Ballina the next morning.
There was no question of the 17-year-old missing out on Ballina Stephenites’ minor league game against Claremorris that Monday evening, however.
“I had to get rid of the Cidona out of me and get over there,” laughs Clarke now.
“There was no big homecoming or celebrations from what I remember.”
Clarke had kept goal for the minors the previous year as they reached the All-Ireland final, losing to Cork, so his stock was high and he was drafted in as the under-21s’ first choice.
Fergal Kelly, who later played outfield for Mayo, was understudy to Peter Burke for the seniors.
“He either got injured or he stepped away. I don’t know what happened.
“I didn’t train a whole pile with them really.
“I was still playing minor and I was playing under-21 and I was in school so I used to only be there a small bit but that was kind of it then.
“I just tagged along for the games.”
Clarke was just 12
when Mayo came from obscurity to reach the 1996 All-Ireland final.
“That team in 1996 and ‘97, they were heroes and next thing you were in the dressing room.
“I wouldn’t be an overly outgoing fella anyway so I would have kept myself to myself but I remember after
(the league final), they were in the showers and you could tell it meant something to them.
“They won a national title and some of them said to me, not in a bad way, ‘You’re lucky, you’re only in the door’.
“A lot of them had soldiered for a lot of years just to get a bit of recognition like that, a national title.
“It meant something to them in a quiet, content way. There was no mad celebrations from what I can remember but it definitely meant something to them.
Awe
“I was a different generation. I was watching on in awe of some of them.”
As a result of injury and stiff competition, Clarke’s Mayo career was stop-start before he went on to win two All Stars and was shortlisted for footballer of the year in 2017.
He got to play in three league finals, losing each of them, while he was injured when they won the title after an 18year lapse in 2019.
Reaching league finals hasn’t tended to be kind to Mayo, with them failing to win the Connacht title after going that far in 2001, ’07, ’10, ’19 and ’22, with 2012 an exception.
Despite a provincial quarter-final against Roscommon next weekend, Clarke doesn’t worry about the league negatively affecting their Championship showing this time.
“In the past, there used to be big breaks between league and Championship. It’s different now,” he says.
“If anything, it’ll prepare them for later on in the summer, games coming up fairly quick, and in the last couple of years there has been a change that games do come a bit closer together.
“They’ll be looking at it as a standalone game to win something, then look after next week.”