After a winter of discontent came the spring torment for David Tubridy.
Hanging up the boots was difficult enough for the prolific Clare forward, particularly after seeing the attractive Munster SFC draw, which has placed qualification for a provincial decider well within his county’s grasp.
Beat Cork on Sunday, then Limerick 13 days later, and Clare would be through to what would have been just the second Munster final of Tubridy’s career.
But the Doonbeg man, the all-time leading scorer in the National League, battled an Achilles injury last year and it became pretty clear that, having made his debut way back in 2007 under Páidí Ó Sé, his time was finally up.
That didn’t make it any easier watching Clare recently suffer relegation from Division Two of the National League. They held significant leads against both Kildare and Dublin but somehow lost both of those games by a point, eventually finishing up just below sixth-placed Meath in the table.
“It has gone through my head, the ‘what ifs’,” admitted Tubridy at RTÉ’s launch of their coverage of the GAA championships. “If you were there, you could have kicked that point or done something to settle it. Experience was needed in the last few minutes against Kildare and against Dublin as well.
“We lost Cathal O’Connor in the Kildare game, a massive loss, and we had to bring on a few young fellas. Kildare piled the pressure on and we didn’t have the experience to slow down the game. The same with Dublin.”
As a result of that relegation, Clare now need to reach the Munster final to avoid dropping down to the Tailteann Cup. There is an argument that they might be as well off there anyhow, to rebuild and generate momentum again. If they were to win the Tailteann Cup they’d have a free pass for the Sam Maguire Cup competition in 2024.
“I know Colm Collins will only be thinking around the All-Ireland series,” said Tubridy, shaking his head. “If they do lose on Sunday, well, then they can talk about the Tailteann Cup but I think right now his mindset is Championship, Championship. It would be hard for Clare given where they were last year, in an All-Ireland quarter-final, to then drop back down to the Tailteann Cup.
“If they do go down, they would have to win it to get through to the All-Ireland qualifiers next year, which was what Westmeath done.
“But I thought there’d be more of a kick from Westmeath this year after winning it. They didn’t push on in the league at all. Is that going to happen to Clare next year too? If they win the Tailteann Cup, are they going to sit back and not get promoted next year? You just don’t know.”
Tubridy himself was approached by RTÉ shortly after his retirement to be part of their punditry team.
He was part of the panel last Sunday evening for the National League finals highlights show.
He says he’s at peace with his retirement decision but admits it’ll be strange, all the same, in the build-up to Sunday’s clash with Cork.
“It’s 15 years of playing Championship football and then in your first year gone, you have a home game and a great chance to get into a Munster final,” he said. “I suppose everything will be going through your head on Sunday morning, ‘What are the boys at? What time did they get up for breakfast?’
“They’ll probably head to the Temple Gate two hours before the match and then head to the dressing-room. That’s usually what Colm’s plan would be. It’ll be hard to watch, hard to look in.
“Seeing Clare get relegated this year, it kind of hurt that bit more. Because you’re thinking, ‘If I’d stayed on, would they have stayed up?’ You always get those thoughts in the back of your head. Hopefully now Colm can get things sorted on Sunday and we can have a good day watching.”
