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24th Jul 2016

1992 All-Ireland winner comes out of retirement to make up the numbers for Donegal club

Declan Bonner answers the call

Darragh Murphy

When Declan Bonner kicked over the final point in Donegal’s All-Ireland final triumph over Dublin, Rhythm is a Dancer was top of the Irish charts.

The year was 1992 and Bonner, a corner forward by trade, played a key role in the upset of the men from the capital.

It’s been 24 years since the greatest moment in his playing career but Bonner, now 50 years old and long retired, is still well up for a game of ball.

Declan Bonner and Jim McGuinness 21/6/1998

So when his beloved club Na Rossa were in need of an extra body, Bonner didn’t shy away and pulled on the goalkeeper’s jersey for their Michael Murphy Sports Junior A Championship clash with St Mary’s, Convoy.

Na Rossa were short of numbers for the game with regular ‘keeper Patrick Joseph Hanlon absent so they called upon Bonner who hadn’t featured for the club since 2013, when he also played in goals as an emergency option.

And while his presence between the posts wasn’t enough to inspire Na Rossa to victory, it was great to see a legend togging out again.

Declan Bonner 21/9/2014

“It’ll be hard to take me out of nets now,” Bonner told Donegal Sport Hub.

“I haven’t played in three years now, but I enjoyed it.

“We should have won the game. We missed a rake of chances. We’d thought on Friday about actually forfeiting the game, but we scraped together a team and got men resurrected!”

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