Marty Clarke set to make sensational return to Down fold, as sweeper keeper

Former All-Star footballer Marty Clarke could sensationally play for Down this season, 13 years after last featuring for his county.

Fondly remembered as a cultured half forward, Clarke was a key member of the Down team that made it to the 2010 All-Ireland final, where they were eventually beaten by Cork.

His play-making performances earned him an All-Star at the end of that season but few were to know at that stage that his inter-county days were numbered.

Spells in the AFL with Collingwood (between 2007 and 2009 and again between 2011 and 2014) curtailed his involvement for the Mourne county with his last appearance having been in a championship defeat to Cork in 2011, when he was just 23.

Clarke enjoyed great success Down Under, making 73 appearances for the Pies and scoring nineteen goals.

Clarke was de-listed by Collingwood in 2014, shortly after he had been diagnosed with the extremely rare Addison’s disease, a condition which leads to fatigue and weight-loss, and affects only one in every 100,000 people.

It forced him into an early retirement from Down duty in 2017, on medical advice.

“I made the decision because of the stress it’s putting me under,” Clarke said seven years ago.

“The dynamic nature of Gaelic where you’re running, you’re jumping, I was putting my body under a lot of stress.

“I just felt completely zapped from the start of the game to the finish. When I got home it was taking me longer and longer to recover."

In recent years, Clarke has worked as a pundit and as a GAA coach but having made a first appearance in six years for his club last season, it is now being reported by the Irish News that he will return to the inter-county fold, as a goalkeeper.

The goalkeeping position has changed in recent times, with an ever-increasing emphasis on 'sweeper keeping' and with Down without three top goalies in Niall Kane, Charlie Smyth and Gary McMahon, the decision has been made to give Clarke a go in the nets.

Down are performing well in Division Three, with last weekend's win over Sligo leaving them at the top of the table, with five wins from five games. Glenn's John O'Hare has been their first choice goalkeeper so far this year.