One can understand why Andy Moran and Alan Dillon would be afraid to retire. The sight of watching your county go the distance so soon after you call it a day must be hard to countenance.
Here are six players who, after years of service and for various reasons, injury, fitness, selection, missed out on their team's ultimate glory.
Kevin Cassidy
The hero of Donegal's dramatic victory over Kildare in 2011, Cassidy won two All-stars, in his debut season of 2002 and his (enforced) final year of 2011. However, he chose to contribute to Declan Bogue's book 'This is our Year' which told the story of the 2011 championship from the perspective of 10 different Ulster footballers.
Cassidy was ruthlessly cut out of the loop by Jim McGuinness and watched on as Donegal won the whole freaking lot in 2012. His involuntary retirement from inter-county football could hardly come at a worse time.
The whole episode has got to hurt. Could you properly enjoy seeing your county win an All-Ireland under such circumstances?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rUDZJC29l5c
Michael Owen
Owen chose the wrong year to depart for Real Madrid. Liverpool's League form didn't get any better when Owen departed for Spain. However, Owen had to watch his old club claim the most surreal Champions League title of them all under Rafa Benitez.
Madrid, meanwhile, despite their usual eye-popping collection of big names, were pipped to the Champions League title by Barcelona and failed miserably in the tournament which Liverpool won, exiting in the group stage.
The following year, Owen was back in England, not in Liverpool but at Newcastle, were he spent four pointless years. The second half of Owen's career was a waste of time which only served to draw attention away from the fine striker he was at Liverpool.
Val Daly
Val, to be fair, was pushing it by keeping going as far as 1997.
He made his championship debut in 1981 and was probably Galway's best forward in the 80s and 90s. He won six Connacht titles as Galway dominated the province during the mid-1980s, disappeared off the map in the early 90s, and returned to form from the mid-90s onwards.
Daly was appointed player-manager for the 1997 season as an improving Galway were beaten by All-Ireland finalists Mayo in an entertaining game in Tuam. Galway did rely largely on Niall Finnegan's accuracy from placed balls but the 34 year old Daly picked himself for the game and kicked one great point from play.
That was that after 16 years in a Galway jersey. We know what happened the following year.
Ciaran Whelan
Dublin has a rich tradition of players who fall off the panel just before the team reach the ultimate glory. Tommy Carr, having captained the side through the early 90s, was injured for the 1995 season, Eamon Heery, an excellent player during the early 90s, fell out with Pat O'Neill before '95, Jack Sheedy, having been a midfield stalwart between 91 and 94, was merely a non-playing sub when they defeated Tyrone that September.
However, Ciaran Whelan is the most sickening example of this phenomenon. He made his debut in the 1996 championship year, when Dublin's title defence ended on a sopping wet day against Meath and John O'Leary sat in the dressing room wanting to go up and punch Mickey Whelan in the face.
Thirteen years later, his career came to an end as Kerry embarrassed the Dubs in the quarters. In between, Whelan had to shoulder much of the burden of carrying the Dubs through the summer, and was frequently made scapegoat when they collapsed on the big stage.
Two years after Whelan called it quits, Dublin recovered their winning ways.
Shane Horgan
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEpgK2AMq2Y
Horgan won three Heineken Cups and three Triple Crowns during his impressive career. However, for that brief period in early 2009, Horgan was the forgotten man of Irish rugby. A relic from the Eddie O'Sullivan era, cast aside by the maestro Declan Kidney, Horgan spent his days plugging away in the Magners League as Ireland won their first Grand Slam in 61 years.
He was honest enough to admit on Second Captains that he found it hard to enjoy Ireland's win that year, saying that this year's title was the first one he was able to celebrate properly. He also said he swap all three of his Triple Crowns for one Six Nations championship win.
Malcolm O'Kelly suffered a similar fate, with Neil Francis lamenting that Tom Court (aka, Zelig) got the same amount of 'game-time' as O'Kelly. Thankfully, both O'Kelly went on to win frequently in the Heineken Cup.
Morgan Nix
Footballers who lined out for Longford between the years of 1988 and 1995 didn't win any All-Ireland titles. Ditto for the footballers of Carlow. People are not inclined to feel any sympathy for them.
Morgan Nix belongs to that unfortunate band of players who played for Kerry between the years 1987 and 1996, the Bermuda Triangle of Kerry football, a period when the most successful county in football history drifted into the wilderness and settled there for an uncommonly long period of time. Read a comprehensive article on that curious period here.
Nix made his debut in the championship in 1988, as Kerry were pipped by Cork in Munster. This became the story of his and many other Kerry player's careers at that time (though they weren't always pipped). He was the man srung from the shadows as Paidi Ó Sé was dropped for the first time in his career.
Nix did captain Kerry to the 1991 Munster title, but there time of youthful waifs and knee bandaged auld fellas were well beaten by Down in a low scoring semi-final.
His final game for Kerry came in the 1995 Munster final, when yet another defeat to Cork heralded the end of Ógie Moran's managerial reign. The following year, Paidi returned, this time as manager.
There followed a Munster title in '96, and the long-awaited All-Ireland arrived the next year.
