Éamonn Callaghan has seen a lot of highs and lows during his 16 years playing senior football for Kildare.
He’s been within a kick of a ball of making an All-Ireland final and he’s been part of a sides that have suffered embarrassing defeats and early exits.
But on Saturday the 35-year-old said he reached the pinnacle of his career when he came on as a late substitute in the All-Ireland qualifier against Mayo at Newbridge on Saturday to kick the insurance point in the 0-21 to 0-19 win.
"It tops it," said the Garda from Naas, who made his debut in 2002 under the management of Mick O’Dwyer.
"Throughout all the years, we’ve had great times and great wins and great days in Croke Park. But to do that against a team who have been the second best team in the country for a few years now; it was brilliant.
"To get a win over a seasoned team like that in Newbridge after everything that happened, the emotion of the whole day and the atmosphere, it’s definitely the best day I’ve had in my career. And I’ve had a few fair years."
Kildare fought hard last week to ensure that the Mayo game was played at St Conleth’s Park rather than Croke Park, which was the preference of the GAA.
Once they were granted home advantage, they backed that up with a performance to beat the team that has lost the last two All-Ireland finals to Dublin by just a kick of a ball.
"It was unanimous from the players. Everyone said Newbridge. And we knew the consequences if it was fixed for Croke Park. We were aware of that," said Callaghan.
"But everyone said Newbridge within ten minutes. That was it and Cian (O’Neill, manager) took it from there. He made his statement and that was it. We were training the following evening.
"If the ground holds six thousand, that’s grand. We’ll play in front of six thousand.
"If it holds two thousand, that’s grand. We’ll play in front of two thousand. It wasn’t the crowd…I know it was mental for tickets.
"But it was 8,200. That was the capacity. That’s grand. We’ll play in front of that. Why should we have to move?" asked Callaghan, whose nickname in the panel is Leper.
A perfect day in Conleths yesterday. Hope ‘the lads’ @officialgaa had tickets to witness a real championship atmosphere. Well done to both sets of supporters 👌🏼⚪️⚪️
— Eamonn Callaghan (@leperleper) July 1, 2018
"It was clear for us and very straight forward. It was our home game and this is our home pitch. We played in Castlebar two years ago.
"It was the exact same time of year. I remember going down there and the Mayo crowd, we were outnumbered by ten-to-one that day. It was crazy.
"I know in the past before we’ve got moved a couple of times and we went down to Portlaoise but it was different this year. We wanted to play here and we were entitled to it. That’s it."
Kildare are just one win away from the All-Ireland quarter-finals, with Fermanagh standing in their way in a round four qualifier at Páirc Tailteann on Saturday.
Callaghan's commitment to Kildare cannot be questioned. Apart from his long service, he made himself available for an O'Byrne Cup tie in January 2017 just hours after returning from his honeymoon and in 2013 he took three months unpaid leave from his job in order to rehabilitate a long-running groin injury.
