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Mark Vaughan Recalls How Unfortunate Meeting With Pat Gilroy In A Pub Ended Dublin Career

Mark Vaughan Recalls How Unfortunate Meeting With Pat Gilroy In A Pub Ended Dublin Career
Gary Connaughton
By Gary Connaughton
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In the modern GAA, there is very little room for players who do not stick to team rules. The likes of Dublin have epitomised that in recent seasons, demanding that all of their panel row in the same direction both on and off the pitch.

Things that certainly won't be tolerated are players breaking drinking bans or doing other things that might adversely affect the team.

In a bygone era, many inter-county stars would have had a more relaxed attitude when it came to these issues. That was especially true if they were among the bigger talents in the squad, with a little bit of extra leeway usually given to mavericks who were capable of producing moments of magic despite a relative lack of discipline in other areas.

That is not something we see anymore.

Mark Vaughan says Gilroy meeting in pub ended Dublin career

Mark Vaughan is a player who would have fallen into that category. The Kilmacud Crokes man was a hugely talented forward, making quite the impact with Dublin after first coming into the squad.

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However, his inter-county career was far shorter than it should have been, largely due to the lacks of place for luxury forwards such as him at that level.

His conduct off the pitch also hurt him at times.

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Speaking on a Smaller Fish live show this week, Vaughan recalled how an unfortunate meeting in Dublin City Centre bar with then Dublin boss Pat Gilroy in 2009 ended his inter-county career for good.

That was an unfortunate incident, it was just a miscommunication in fairness.

We won the All-Ireland one year with Kilmacud Crokes and came in three months late. It was meant to be a three-week drinking rule, we were told it was two weeks. We were playing Kerry and I had been injured anyway, I was still injured at the time.

We were out that night and obviously the barman recoginsed me and text (Gilroy's) wife. He was out that night and came in. I was ordering drinks and he stood up beside me, I ducked down and ran out.

I ring my friends and asked where they were, they were in Coppers. I go up to Coppers for the night and they were saying 'it might not have been Gilroy'. I said 'it was 100 per cent Gilroy'. They asked if I was certain, I said 'he was talking to me!' We convinced ourselves it might not be.

At around 6am we were heading home. I got the phone-call on the way home saying 'don't bother coming down again'.

That was it.

You can watch the show in full here.

Dublin did not suffer without Vaughan on the panel, winning the All-Ireland a couple of years later and then going on to dominate the sport for the best part of a decade.

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He might well have come to regret that night out in the end.

SEE ALSO: Keegan Explains Why New Championship Format Benefits Dublin & Kerry More Than Other Counties

lee keegan gaa dublin kerry advantage

 

 

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