Stephen Cluxton's return to the Dublin panel has been one of the biggest stories for the county during the 2023 championship summer.
The eight-time All-Ireland winner stepped away from the team ahead of the 2021 championship, and it appeared as though that would be the end of his intercounty career, though manager Dessie Farrell stressed that the goalkeeper had not definitively retired.
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His surprise return to the Dublin camp, confirmed with his inclusion in the matchday panel for March's league game against Louth, appears to have spurred on Dublin, as they have returned to an All-Ireland final for the first time since his initial step away from the panel.
Alongside the returning Jack McCaffrey and Paul Mannion, Cluxton's presence has given added experience and composure to the Dublin team, and he is yet to concede a goal since his return.
One of Cluxton's ex-teammates Ciarán Whelan has now revealed what may have been the instigating factor in the legendary keeper coming out of "retirement," revealing that the Parnells man may have been swayed by a conversation at James McCarthy's wedding.
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Dublin GAA: Ciarán Whelan muses on Cluxton return
Speaking on the Irish Examiner's preview of the All-Ireland football final live from Killarney this week, Ciarán Whelan revealed his knowledge of what may have drawn Stephen Cluxton back into the fray of intercounty football.
Whelan initially praised Dessie Farrell for his ability to convince Dublin's trio of prodigal sons to come back to the fold, saying, "When Mannion and McCaffrey walked away, and Cluxton walked away...to get them back in the fold, he [Farrell] deserves credit for that. They've plenty of medals in their pocket, they could have easily...to manage to get them back."
Whelan then went on to speculate as to what had convinced Cluxton, McCaffrey, and Mannion to return to the Dublin panel - and revealed the inciting incident he believed had done it for Cluxton:
I would think it's the losses of the last two years [that drew them back].
Stephen Cluxton's return was a casual conversation at James McCarthy's wedding. A couple of players said, 'would you come back?' - joking. And he said yes.
He was obviously missing it, and they got him back.
The hurt of the last two years, think of the Kerry team that came back in '84 and '85 to get as much out of that group as possible. Some of them are standing - in terms of greatness, they're legends of the game.
The revelation from Whelan comes in the same week as Cluxton's Dublin teammate Brian Howard revealed that - for the vast majority of the squad - the goalkeeper's return to the setup was a complete surprise.
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Whelan's comments suggest that there may at least have been some knowledge in the Dublin camp that Cluxton was contemplating a return, with photos from the wedding showing the 41-year-old alongside the likes of Niall Scully, Brian Fenton, and John Small, as well as ex-Dublin men Paddy Andrews and Michael Darragh Macauley.
There mightn't have been much hope of convincing Andrews or Macauley back to the fold, but we might now have a further insight into how Stephen Cluxton was tempted to return.
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