Darren Mulhearne was first called into a Waterford senior football panel as a 17-year-old. He never got to play a game and he was let go shortly afterwards.
Over the years he thought the chance of playing for his county had gone, but now, 29 years later, he stands on the verge of making his debut for the Deise.
The 46-year-old goalkeeper has been called up by manager Benji Whelan after his first choice net-minder Aaron Beresford suffered an injury on club duty.
"I know Benji so I didn’t think too much when I saw he was ringing me," said Mulhearne, speaking to RTÉ Sport. "He said to me ‘do you want to play football for the next few months?’ and I asked him ‘with who?’.
"I had to put the phone down and process it for an hour - it was a total shock!" Mulhearne discussed it with his wife Camille and she told him to go for it.
He made his senior debut with Kilrossanty as a 16-year-old after the first choice goalkeeper got injured during the summer and he won his first - and so far only - county senior title that season. "The reason I’m still playing is I’m looking for a second," he joked.
He has missed a few seasons over the past three decades, he was away in Australia for a couple of years and he sat out a couple of campaigns when he got married and built a house, but he has been an almost ever-present through the nineties, the noughties and the teens.
A blast from the past! #happydays pic.twitter.com/kxEeyXJa4P
— Darren Mulhearne (@mulhearne) November 19, 2014
"I love football, I enjoy everything about it," he said. "I don’t think I have ever had a serious injury and I love to keep fit, which makes it easier. It would be different if I was playing outfield, of course.
"It’s brilliant now to be involved with an inter-county team - I have enjoyed every training session and I love the challenge."
Mulhearne is battling it out for the starting place in goals with David Whitty for the Munster Senior Football Championship quarter-final with Clare on Saturday, 11 May. If he starts he’ll be one of the older inter-county debutants of all time - if not the oldest.
He has three children, Cian, 15, Katie, 13 and Caoimhe, 9, and he’s old enough to be father to many of his team-mates too. They call him grandad at county training - not that it bothers him. "Sure I’m well used to it," he smiles.
