A Dublin legend. An Irish legend. A GAA legend.
Stephen Cluxton is one of a kind.
You could talk all day about how he revolutionised the goalkeeping position. You could spend two days discussing how he was known as one of the finest shot-stoppers before his kicking accuracy and decision-making took the game into another stratosphere.
His feats and accomplishments and his crazy consistency have been so high that Stephen Cluxton isn’t even going to just be remembered for that free kick in 2011 to win the All-Ireland. He’s going to be remembered for everything else – his talent and his aura and his groundbreaking kickout success. Then people will remember that time he won Dublin’s first All-Ireland of the century in spectacular circumstances and unbelievable pressure.
He is so good that he won’t be defined by that historic free kick. It’s almost an afterthought – a glorious one at that – but you’d be forgiven for forgetting about it because he has done so much more.
On Sunday against Kildare in the Leinster football final, Stephen Cluxton will join elite company.
In, this, his 17th season with his county senior side, the Parnells man will make his 88th senior championship appearance.
Only Tomás Ó Sé and Marc Ó Sé have managed that to date but Cluxton will join them at the top of the all-time appearances list and he’ll surely surpass them this summer before going on to quash the record in future.
At 35, you wouldn’t put it past Cluxton to carry on and maybe even hit the 100 mark.
Most appearances in the senior football championship
Tomás Ó Sé (Kerry) – 88
Marc Ó Sé (Kerry) – 88
Stephen Cluxton (Dublin) – 87
Sean Cavanagh (Tyrone) – 86
Colm Cooper (Kerry) – 85
In 2016, Marc Ó Sé equalled his brother when he came off the bench in the All-Ireland semi-final but he never got a chance to better it after Dublin ended their season and his inter-county career there and then.
The evergreen Sean Cavanagh continues to do the extraordinary and, with at least two games left for Tyrone in 2017 – one of which is on Sunday in the Ulster final – the Moy man should also equal the Kerry duo’s record, if not surpass it by the end of the campaign.
We’re witnessing two living legends here railing against time. The longevity of their impacts on this game is incredible. The limits of what they can do? Still undefined.
Sit back and enjoy two of the greatest. Who knows when or where it will end.
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