“You never know what the last thing you say to somebody is going to be. It made me think about life differently. I was instantly more grateful for everything I have. I wanted to go home and hug my children. It shook me. And all the lads were the same.”
Offaly captain Declan Hogan celebrates at the final whistle after the victory over Meath at O'Connor Park, Tullamore. Photograph: Evan Treacy/Inpho
He was far from alone. Full-back and captain Declan Hogan sank to the turf, leaned back on his heels and screamed into the clouds. The McNamee brothers, Ruairí and Conor, melted into a puddle together. Bernard Allen, making his 100th senior appearance for the county, sprinted in a circle with aeroplane arms.
On that chill spring Sunday, the death of Liam Kearns caught in the throat of so many people in so many corners of the GAA. “Liam laid his cards out early doors,” Allen says. “He talked from the start about four games in particular. He wanted to target the Antrim game because it was the first game in the league. He wanted to target the Tipperary game because he was there for such a long time and had such a relationship with the county.
“The thing with Liam is that he was a brilliant man, as well as a manager,” Dunne says. “I know that’s easy to say now but there was just no bullshit with him. He would give it to you straight, no sugar-coating. And because of that, he got instant respect from everybody.” Even though he’d been in football forever, he was still curious and keen to know about all the changes that were constantly pulsing through the game. With a cast of All-Ireland-winning under-20s coming through, he could see the potential in Offaly and Duignan didn’t really have to do much courting.
“That kind of freaked me out a bit – how fickle life is. In training that day, I got a dunt into the nose. It’s weird the things you remember. Liam would be hardy, now. But he said, ‘Nigel, are you alright?’ And I went, ‘Yeah, I’m grand.’ And for days afterwards I was thinking, ‘That’s the last conversation we ever had’.
“I remember going into the dressing-room in Semple Stadium and someone had hung a Bainisteoir bib up on the wall. We didn’t make a big song and dance out of it, we all knew the significance of the game. But I thought that was a lovely touch. I took a picture of it. I still have it on my phone.”. But the emotion of the week was bound to extract its price eventually and when they played Down in Tullamore the following week, they found their cards were all maxed out. They lost by 12.
“Martin took over and was authentic and real. He said, ‘This is a situation I never thought I’d find myself in’. He handled it in a way that was so relatable to all of us because we were all going through the same thing.
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