Denis Bastick was very close to playing for Laois

It was one hell of a career.

And what a way to go about it winning five All-Ireland titles, but we've now seen the last of Denis Bastick in a Dublin jersey. The writing had been on the wall for quite some time so it was no great shock when Bastick hung up his inter-county boots. At the age of 36, and finding playing time limited, it was bound to happen that the midfielder would call it a day sooner or later, but leaving with a fifth All-Ireland title is not a bad way to go. The Templeogue Synge Street club man became an established member in one of the best teams of all time but it nearly wasn't that way; Bastick nearly played for Laois. Upon announcing his retirement, The GAA Hour's Colm Parkinson was full of praise for the veteran saying:

“If anyone deserves five All-Irelands it’s Denis Bastick."

That's because Bastick only made his Dublin debut at the age of 28, a late bloomer. It wasn't the first time he tried to break into a county panel as he had trials with Wooly's home county but evidently didn't impress enough:

"Denis Bastick got a trial for Laois in 2004 and couldn’t make the Laois panel," Parkinson recalled. "Denis Bastick didn’t give up, he floated around Dublin squads in and out of them and didn’t make them. He won an All-Ireland Junior, stuck in there. "He has family from Laois…he didn’t really stand out in the trials, I actually don’t remember him at the trials but it is fact that he was at the trials because Mick (O’Dwyer) was looking at different fellas with connections he was kind of searching with fellas with the granny rule, he was doing a Jack Charlton on it because he thought we might need an extra couple of players."

You'd get the sense that missing out on Laois only to win five All-Ireland titles isn't the worst set-back that Bastick has endured in his footballing life.