By John Harrington

If you’re a man in your forties, then keeping an eye on the various club championships around the counties at this time of the year has a way of making you feel both good and bad about yourself simultaneously.

Good because there are so many players in their forties now still making a big impact for their club teams.

Bad because their endeavours make you feel somewhat self-conscious about your own relative athleticism, or lack thereof.

Last weekend Kildare legend Johnny Doye was the poster-boy for the fortysomething club when the 45-year-old played a big role in Allenwood’s Kildare Intermediate Championship success.

In doing so he stole the thunder of Sligo’s 2007 Connacht championship winning captain, Noel McGuire, who enjoyed his own special day by coming on as a substitute for Easkey in their Sligo Intermediate Final victory.

Also a team selector, it was the 44 year old’s 130th championship appearance for the Easkey senior footballers over the course of 29 seasons.

“I don't know who was doing the counting, but I made my debut in 1995 and that's a good number of years ago,” says McGuire.

“I didn't count them up anyway but someone made a stab at it. I'm not sure how accurate it is, but it's probably not that far off. I'm only a few weeks away from my 45th birthday so there's a fair bit of mileage on the clock, alright!”

Even though he’s been on the road with Easkey for a long time now, McGuire’s love of pulling on the jersey remains as strong as ever and he took huge satisfaction from playing his part in Sunday’s win.

“It's hard to describe it,” he says. “There's just a passion and a hunger there for the club, it's just something that's embedded in me. I just always want the club to do well.

“My Dad was at the game on Sunday, he's 86, and played with the team back in the '60s and I have a son myself now who is playing too and it's just all related to the family and the locality. You just want to get involved and do what you can to help out.

“It was extremely satisfying win for us. We've been knocking on the door for a while, we've been to five semi-finals in a row and that was our second final in a row.

“We got a heavy beating last year so it felt good now when that final whistle went on Sunday."

Where once players might be expected to hang up their boots when they hit their early or mid-thirties, now it seems to be a lot more common to extract many more years out of your playing career.

McGuire puts this down to the fact that players are now far more clued in about fitness and good diet than they once might have been.

“Even in our own panel there's three of us in our forties and another lad only a few weeks from turning 40,” he says.

“Obviously Johnny Doyle got a lot of press this week and he's a year older than me and played the full game in the Kildare Intermediate Final.

“I think players are now a bit more aware and a bit more educated on how to keep in shape on the strength and conditioning side of things and diet. It's not rocket-science, it's just case of looking after yourself.

“The only concern I have is when you come across a 19 or 20 year old who can run 32 kilometres per hour and the most I can get up to is 26 or 27! You have to be careful who you could be lining yourself up against!”

McGuire has also been a selector with the Sligo senior footballers for the past three years and believes joining in with some of the team’s fitness training has also helped extent his club career.

“What I tend to do is when the club season ends I take two or three weeks off and then gradually go back and do my own bit to just keep ticking over," he says. "I never get to a stage where I get out of shape, I always try to stay at a certain level.

“With Sligo there would be evenings where I'd do some of the conditioning work, runs and that, and I'm join in and do my best. I wouldn't be keeping up with them but I'd be doing a little bit and that helps me definitely to keep the body in some kind of shape.”

McGuire will be part of Tony McEntee’s management team again next year and is looking forward to the season after a positive 2023 that saw Sligo win the Allianz Football League Division 4 title and reach the Connacht Final.

“We were very happy with our year last year,” he says. “A fair bit of preparation has already gone in to 2024 which is only a few weeks away now.

“There's a good buzz around the Sligo football squad at the minute. There's lots of talented players coming through from the U-20s and I think next year will be a big year for us. We're up in Division Three and we want to push it on again and see where we can get to.

“So, yeah, exciting times definitely.”