Player and selector is an unusual combination in Gaelic games and the exceptions, like Tony Hanahoe or Brian McEniff, trip off the tongue because they are rare.
Louth's Stephen Melia, who plays full back against Kildare in tomorrow's Bank of Ireland Leinster championship, is a recent addition to the ranks.
"It was suggested to me that I might be interested and I decided it would be good to learn the tools of the trade. I've had a long inter-county career but I think I'm deriving more out of it than Paddy or Eugene."
At the beginning of this season, Louth manager Paddy Clarke was made aware of a view amongst the county board. "We played poorly against Dublin and there only two of us on the line (Clarke and the only other selector Eugene Judge).
"It was recommended in such a way as to make it an order that we should get a third selector. I'm actually a great believer in player-selectors. At Stabanon Parnells I had Patrick Butterly and it worked very well.
"A player sees things on the field. Stephen can tell me that the other team's half forwards are rowing and not to make a change because we're getting on top. Something I mightn't notice."
Now 35, Melia began his inter-county career 15 years ago against Offaly. In the meantime he has played and won Railway Cups with Leinster and captained his county.
Primarily a half back, he has also done well-regarded service for Louth on the 40 and now at full back, since an injury to Denis Reilly before the league match with Wicklow created a vacancy on the edge of the square.
"He's a great influence on the boys and a lot of the success we've had is down to the attitude he's instilled and the work ethic he embodies," says Clarke.
The success referred to is comparative but current. Louth defeated Offaly in last month's NFL Division Two final at Croke Park, a rare win at headquarters.
Melia rates it as his career highlight. Along the way Louth also picked up an All-Ireland B title in 1997 and have frequently been one of the top four teams in Leinster.
Throughout the 1990s, the county has an impressive record of losing to the ultimate provincial winners or finalists every year except 1993. And on a number of those occasions - 1992, '97 and '98 - the margins were tight.
"We knocked on the door on several occasions," says Melia, "but we never took the final step. If we can get to a similar stage again, I would hope that this team will make it."
No longer as full of recognisable names as previously, Louth are younger and, in Melia's view, a more integrated team. The full-forward line of Stefan White, Colin Kelly and Cathal O'Hanlon is no more, with only O'Hanlon still on the go.
"I can't put my finger on exactly what went wrong in the past but there was a great reliance on too few very good players. Louth was always capable of producing a marvellous footballer but the trouble was getting people to blend in with them."
He is dismissive of Louth's two wins over Kildare in the last decade. "We put one over on them once or twice but they have a Leinster title and reached five finals. They have achieved a lot more than we ever did."
It is the freshness and cohesiveness of the current team which gives Melia greatest hope for the future. "We played Offaly in the Division Two final and they went four clear.
"I've played on teams which would have surrendered and not put up a battle. This team work so hard for each other that they'll always have a chance no matter who they play."
