Andy Moran took a seat in the dressing room and sitting down across from him was David Clarke.
This was Mayo under-16 training, this was first impressions and as young fellas do, Moran began sizing up the competition with the fella alongside him. Fred Queenan was his name, a Ballina Stephenites man and when they came to David Clarke, Queenan didn’t play his club-man down.
“‘Wait ’til you see this guy. He’s unbelievable,’ he said to me, and I’ll always remember it.”
“It kind of always stuck with me since then that Clarkey was just this special talent.”
Moran would get used to that sight on the other side of the dressing room as for the next 20 years, himself and the Ballina Stephenites club-man would grow up together in Mayo jerseys. When Moran retired last year, Clarke paid tribute to his teammate and friend as “the best teammate you could ever have.” Those compliments are returned this time around, with Clarke certainly having lived up to Queenan’s lofty billing over a stellar 20 year career.
“He idolised Peter Schmeichel as a kid,” says Moran, “From a young age, Clarke was out practicing the starfish saves Schmeichel had brought from Olympic hand-ball. How often over the years did we see those saves over the years?”
David Clarke took goalkeeping tip number one 'make yourself big' to new levels 👌
What a shot-stopper that man was 🛑 pic.twitter.com/TCdE1YEEes
— GAA JOE (@GAA__JOE) January 4, 2021
“In the year 2001, we lost to Sean Cavanagh’s Tyrone minor team by 0-11 to 0-7. But it was an 0-11 0-7 hammering because Clarke made four of the best saves you could ever see in a game. He literally kept us in the game by himself, it was just incredible. From that moment, you just knew this guy was a special talent…”
It wasn’t all a straight, smooth path to the Mayo number one jersey, however. A cruciate knee injury early in his career meant that Clarke missed out on his club’s Mayo senior championship triumph in 2004 but that setback didn’t define him, it drove this single-minded goalkeeper on. In 2016, he was famously dropped for the All-Ireland final replay but Clarke rolled with the punches.
“He did his cruciate shortly after that when he was called into the senior team first. He went away to Maynooth – I’d say he did a bit of partying first – but when he got down to work, he was a different calibre of a man. He’d put on size, he’d put on weight, his flexibility had gone up.
“David had his fair share of heartache. His club Ballina won in 2004, he never got back in that year after the injury. We all know the trials and tribulations over the course of his Mayo career, but never once did he make it about himself. Never once did he complain. I know he was hurt, he was a proud guy, but never did he let his pride get in the way of what he wanted to achieve. On so many occasions, we nearly got there but I’m thankful that he was recognised with his two All-Stars because that’s how good he was…”
‘Meticulous’ was the word Aidan O’Shea used to describe Clarke’s longevity, Moran says it’s no coincidence that he became one of the county’s best and longest serving players.
“The work and the effort he put into it. The art of catching a ball – I know it sounds simple but it was just basics that made him special. When the ball would come into the box and it needed clearing out – Clarke had done that thousands of times, coming out – Peter Burke kicking in a ball, attacking it, someone holding up a tackle bag and Clarke just clearing and clearing and clearing. Every small detail was taken care of to the smallest degree.
David Clarke is made of the right stuff. Saw him in a league game for Ballina last year. They had half a team out (he was the only county player) & he drove them on ferociously in a losing cause. Fitting that he ended his county career with a flawless All Ireland display.
— Joe Brolly (@JoeBrolly1993) January 4, 2021
“The two of us in the dressing room – I’d be talking, yapping. He’d be looking at me thinking this buck is crazy. But when Clarkey talked, everyone used to listen. He was just an infectious guy. He was the hardest working guy in the room. I know it’s a cliche, but he was out at training before everyone else and he was the last to leave every night.”
Back in 2000, they had it all ahead of them in that Mayo under-16 dressing room. Battles were won, battles were lost but the friendship will last.
“I think what made it extra special over the last few years was you had two keepers Clarke and Cluxton – who had so much respect for one another – but they were so different the way they played the game. Both keepers had different styles and the both of them symbolised the style of their team, but how effective both were over the years. Clarkey will miss it and Mayo will miss him, but that’s the way it goes.”
From now on, new Mayo leaders will have to emerge. If you could get two lads like them off every under-16 team…
