The GAA 'golden oldies' still doing it at club level as Kildare legend Johnny Doyle finally retires

With the club season now in the business end, tales of heroes of yesteryear still producing heroics are cropping up all over the country.

And while it’s not unusual for former county stars to play into their late 30s as they retain their quality and lean on their experience, even if the body isn’t quite as willing, examples of those continuing to excel well into their 40s are obviously far less common.

And there’ll be one less of them next year, with news of the retirement of one of Kildare’s all-time greats emerging over the weekend.

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Johnny Doyle (Allenwood)

At 46, Doyle played 46 minutes of Allenwood’s defeat to Athy in the Kildare SFC on Saturday evening at midfield, contributing 0-3 before confirming afterwards that it would be his last outing at senior level, close on three decades after making his debut.

One of the great stories of last year’s club championships centred around the universally popular former Kildare hero Doyle starring as Allenwood at won the county intermediate title, hitting 0-3 in their final win over Castledermot.

It didn’t stop there as Doyle inspired them to a Leinster intermediate title before they were beaten by even champions, St Patrick’s Cullyhanna of Armagh, in the All-Ireland semi-final.

A member of the last Kildare team to win the Leinster title in 2000, Doyle finished up with the county in 2014 and while he has soldiered a further decade for his club’s first team, you wouldn’t rule out the prospect of him featuring at a lower level next year.

Alan McNamee (Rhode)

It’s 26 years ago this month since Alan McNamee made his senior championship debut for Rhode while still under-16, something which wouldn’t be permitted by rule nowadays.

Now 42, he has played senior for Rhode for 27 consecutive seasons and has won 13 Offaly titles, a record.

In recent years, he’s typically been used off the bench until the knockout stages and yesterday he made his first start of the championship, playing 41 minutes, but a quarter-final defeat to Ferbane means that there won’t be a 14th medal this year as Rhode failed to reach the last four for the first time since 2000.

His business isn’t done for this year just yet, however, as a relegation semi-final against Ballycommon awaits.

McNamee played for the county for many years, making his League debut in November 2000, the last time the competition started pre-Christmas, with his final appearance coming in 2013.

Eoin Kelly (Mullinahone)

It’s not unusual for star county players to wind down their club career in goal and Eoin Kelly is no stranger to the position having briefly been Tipperary’s back-up goalkeeper to Brendan Cummins very early in his career.

He went on to become one of Tipperary’s greatest forwards, their all-time top scorer and All-Ireland winning captain in 2010 but, at 42, has been back in nets for Mullinhone in recent years - while still carrying a scoring threat.

Kelly takes long range frees and penalties and netted a crucial penalty in a three-point win over Roscrea last month.

However, defeats either side of that to Thurles Sarsfields and Moycarkey-Borris meant that they failed to progress to the knockout stages.

Brendan Cummins (Ballybacon-Grange)

If Kelly has any retirement plans, he may be of a mind to suspend them given that his former Tipperary teammate Brendan Cummins is still going at 49, seven years his senior.

Cummins, one of the great hurling goalkeepers of the past 30 years or so, played for Tipperary until the age of 38, retiring after the defeat to Kilkenny in the famous qualifier tie at Nowlan Park in 2013 having won All-Irelands in 2001 and ‘10 as well as five All Stars.

At that stage, he was still playing outfield for Ballybacon-Grange and even scored a whopping 0-19 for them from midfield in South Tipperary intermediate championship the year after he quit Tipp.

By now, he’s long back in goal for the club as they remain in the intermediate grade but are in danger of dropping down having lost a relegation semi-final to Arravale Rovers yesterday, with a play-off against Upperchurch-Drombane to decide who goes down.

Either way, Cummins is expected to play into his 50s next year.

Dan Shanahan (Lismore)

Two years ago, Dan Shanahan apparently brought the curtain down on his hurling career when featuring for Lismore in their Waterford SHC quarter-final defeat to Mount Sion having completed 30 seasons with the club.

Yet, he’s still at it two years later at 47 years of age and all indications are that he’ll be back for a 33rd campaign in 2025, despite having recently been drafted into new Waterford manager Peter Queally’s management team.

Shanahan, an ace goalscorer for Waterford and Hurler of the Year in 2007, came off the bench as Lismore retained their senior status by beating Tallow last month.

He remained eligible to play junior B hurling and featured at full-forward as they beat Roanmore in the county final the following weekend.

Martin Penrose (Carrickmore)

An All-Ireland winner in 2005 and ‘08, Martin Penrose was one of the more understated players of Tyrone’s golden era.

Now playing for Carrickmore having transferred from his Aghyaran some years ago, he featured in the Tyrone SFC last weekend at 41 years of age.

The competition is particularly unique in this day and age as it is still played on a knockout basis and Penrose was central to Carrickmore’s edgy 0-11 to 0-10 win over Dromore last Friday week, coming off the bench to great effect as they turned around a four-point deficit.

They play Killyclogher in the quarter-final next Friday night as Penrose chases a first county medal.

Donncha O’Connor (Ballydesmond/Duhallow)

An All-Ireland winner with Cork in 2010, when he shot 0-5 in the final win over Down, O’Connor played for the county until he was 37 and is still competing on two fronts - for his club and division.

He even did a job for Duhallow in goal earlier in the campaign but was back in attack, contributing 0-2, as they bowed out of the SFC with a one-point defeat to Muskerry a couple of weeks ago.

That left O’Connor, 43, to focus solely on his club, Ballydesmond, who play at junior level. Last Friday night he scored 1-8 of their 1-11 in a five-point win over Cullen, but it wasn’t enough to keep them afloat in the championship.

Ciarán McManus (Tubber)

McManus showed unwavering commitment during his Offaly career, commuting home from the likes of Finland and Germany to play for the county but when his work as an engineer for the ESB took him to America for a few years when in his 40s, that appeared to be the end of his club career.

Not a bit of it. When he returned to Ireland in 2021 he fell back in with Tubber and starred at midfield as they reached the senior B final, losing to Clara. The 48-year-old came off the bench at half-time on Saturday, scoring 0-1, as they lost to the same opposition in the senior B quarter-final.

McManus played at midfield on the Offaly team that won the county’s last Leinster title in 1997 and their only National League the following year in an inter-county career that stretched 17 seasons and 160 League and Championship appearances.

He was also selected for the Ireland International Rules squad seven times, appearing in 12 Test matches.

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