AT 46, JOHNNY Doyle already considers himself to be on borrowed time in this racket. At some point, the walls will cave in and the game will be up.
Something will happen to make the decision for him. The body won’t permit him to do it anymore. Or maybe the manager will be the one to call the time of death on his career? You’ve had your turn and now it’s time to make way for the younger calves.
The clock is ticking. His younger teammates often remind him of his battle with time.
“Oh here comes the pensioner,” they sometimes say, treating the age gap with their veteran with humour. The fathers of some of the players were once teammates of Doyle, but the jibes are always well meaning.
And when they do poke fun, he’s always armed with a good response.
“This is an easy game once they took the lace out of the ball.”
All joking aside, the reality of his place is never far from Doyle’s mind. And whatever way the end unfolds for him, he’s already at peace with it. Until that time comes however, he’ll continue to put himself forward for selection with his club Allenwood.
The 2023 season would have been a great time to sign off a club career that stretches back to 1996. Doyle produced a man-of-the-match performance as Allenwood were crowned intermediate champions in Kildare to return to senior football for the first time in seven years. A Leinster title followed after a convincing victory over Dublin’s Scoil Uí Chonaill before narrowly falling short against eventual All-Ireland champions St Patrick’s Cullyhanna of Armagh in the semi-final.
That could have been the end point for him. Surely the most satisfying way to say goodbye to one’s playing days. But medals and cups have never been the measure of what Doyle considers to be a successful career.
“No more than the reason I played last year: I’m enjoying it,” he says when asked why he’s still on the road.
“If it’s all down to winning, you’ll enjoy nothing. The dressing room is what it’s all about, the fun, the craic, the disappointments, the rows.
“You fight tooth and nail for each other. And if anyone is down on their luck or they have a personal thing going on in their life, we just all rally around them. You’re part of something bigger than yourself. To me, that’s what it’s all about. I would have played with a lot of their Dads. They’re a great group to be involved with.”
Doyle has a few suggestions to explain the longevity of his football days, which includes a 15-year career with Kildare an an All-Star in 2010.
A low injury count is one aspect of his theory. He never broke a bone or even experienced the pain of a hamstring twinge. Drinking a lot of milk, his mother reckons, helped with that. He was raised on the white stuff. His diet is generally good, although he won’t deny himself an occasional visit to the chipper. Give or take a pound here or there, he’s the same weight as he was when he was playing with Kildare.
A brief career in athletics while he was in school has sustained Doyle through the years too. And whenever he clocks eyes with an opponent on the pitch, he knows he has the bigger engine for the game ahead.
"We were waiting for that roar all day!" 🙌
— Clubber (@clubber) December 7, 2023
The mighty Johnny Doyle once again delivered for his club with this brilliant score 🏳️@allenwood_gfc were crowned @gaaleinster Intermediate Champions and will take some stopping in the All-Ireland 💪
📺 https://t.co/8RTIDVIpju pic.twitter.com/VWkLUdmHe8
“I was never very fast or very strong,” says Doyle. “I was more wiry. The one that came a little bit easier to me was my ability to run for long periods. I had a natural fitness. I enjoyed running and getting out covering the ground. I might miss the first ball but over the next 70 minutes, I’m going to outrun you.
“I was lucky enough with management in Allenwood. They’d pull you aside and say, ‘Listen, you don’t need to train tonight.’ You have to know your body because recovery does take that bit longer.”
Doyle knows he is blessed to still be in the right physical condition to play football, but that doesn’t mean there weren’t times when his faith was tested. Just one year after dropping down to the intermediate championship, Allenwood were at risk of dropping down a grade again. A relegation semi-final win over Ellistown saved them from the fall.
“You’d fire the bag so many times in the corner and say, ‘That’s it. What am I wasting my time for?’” Doyle says when recalling those tougher moments.
Even last year was choppy at times too. Allenwood “squeezed through” their group as Doyle recalls before reaching the preliminary quarter-final where they needed extra-time to get the better of Kilcullen. It was a similar story against Caragh in the quarter-final, where they came through with a six-point win before accounting for Monasterevan in the semi-final by 12 points.
Castledermot provided the opposition in the final where Doyle hit three points to emulate the heroics of his father who was part of the Allenwood team who won intermediate honours in 1990.
Their run through the Leinster championship brought another series of dramatic finishes. Their quarter-final and semi-final outings were both decided after extra-time, beating Westmeath champions St Malachy’s, and Ballylinan of Laois respectively.
“We could have lost both of them in normal time so it is a fine line,” says Doyle. Allenwood then blitzed Dublin’s Scoil Uí Chonail for four goals in the final to deliver a second major trophy for the club in as many months.
“It’s amazing the way things can turn when you get a bit of momentum.
“When you’re in a competition and you don’t know too much about the opposition, it becomes about what you’re going to do as a team, and working to your strengths. We chased that best performance every day we went out.
“When you have a group of 25-30 lads all thinking that way, it’s a powerful thing. We had subs when we had training matches. Everyone knew who the starters were but the other guys wanted to challenge you. We all want to play and if you have more than five subs, someone’s not going to contribute on match day. But they contribute on Tuesday and Thursday to make sure that there’s another matchday. We were very lucky to have a group of lads who bought into all that.”
Life in the senior championship has been good to Allenwood upon their return. They defeated Kilcock earlier this month in the preliminary round, and will face last year’s finalists Celbridge this weekend.
Doyle was part of the Allenwood teams that won the senior county final in 2004 and played a major role in helping return to the top tier after a seven-year absence. As long as his body permits him to keep going — and there’s still space for him in the dressing room — he’ll continue to serve.
“I suppose like any time you play for your club, you put your hand up and if they think you have something to offer, they’ll pick you. And if they don’t, that’s ok too.
“That’s the attitude I’ve taken for the last number of years. It’s great to be still involved and be able to add something. I just love playing the game.”
