From championship embarrassment on a vast scale enacted to accompanying chants of "Sumo, Sumo" from jeering Mayo supporters to an integral part in All-Ireland success: in his varied career with Galway and Corofin, Martin McNamara can never have experienced the wild swings of the last 10 months.
Restored to the county team for tomorrow's Church & General National Football League quarterfinal against Offaly, the goalkeeping hero of Corofin's historic All-Ireland club victory last month doesn't have to go back very far to find a counterpoint.
Last May's first-round defeat by Mayo in the Connacht championship at Tuam featured a third-minute goal by PJ Loftus which was gifted to the winners by some headless defending. The fiasco began with a short kick-out from McNamara - who is one of the longest kickers in football - and he attracted a disproportionate amount of the blame.
Consequently his outstanding performance for Corofin in the club final during which he kept out three starkly inviting goalscoring opportunities helped him set aside the bad memories of last year.
"Yeah, it was a great relief," he says. "Maybe I put myself under pressure. The lads said they believed in me but I felt that any further disaster and I could give it up.
"A couple of people put me down for it (the Mayo goal) being my fault. Two of my players handled the ball after I kicked it out. Maybe the short kick-out put them under pressure but I didn't blame myself for the goal. I took three bad kick-outs in the second half and Mayo punished them all so I have to take a lot of blame for losing the match but not for the goal.
"Pat Spillane got himself into trouble over some of the things he said about me afterwards. My family sent him a load of letters and to be fair to him he rang me to say he was sorry for going so far."
Despite his Falstaffian reputation - and maybe because of it - McNamara was sensitive to the excessive criticism and brooded on the Tuam match for a long time in the months that followed. The carping took the enjoyment out of the game.
"I was going to stop playing but Gay Mitchell, who kept goal for Galway for a long time (in the 1970s), helped me an awful lot to get over it. But I was going to pack it in. I started playing for the fun and the crack rather than just the football and when that went, I had to think about the whole thing. When I play, I'll die to win but afterwards I'll have a few pints and forget about it."
Goalkeeper wasn't his original position but that's a long time ago. Surprisingly, given his club final performance against Erin's Isle and some startling reprises in last Sunday's match against Roscommon in the FBD League final, he doesn't rate his ability to save shots as his most valuable asset.
"I used to play corner forward up to under-14 but I wasn't able to run. Even then I had size 38 togs. After that it was the usual story: the 'keeper didn't turn up one day and I went in. I was happy getting my game. I don't see myself as a shot-stopper. Glen Comer (young Corofin player who kept Mayo's John Madden off the UCG team) - I wouldn't go near him as a shot-stopper.
"My kick-out is a strong point, I think. I'm also relaxed when I get the ball, comfortable with it. It's a lot to do with confidence. The Christmas before last, I was 17 1/2 stone - I'm five foot 10 - and the extra weight didn't help. Now I'm down to 14."
His decision to persevere was a wise one. Although the overall performance in Tuam had been encouraging, manager Val Daly was not given another chance and left after only a year in charge. Under new manager John O'Mahony, who had already taken Mayo and Leitrim to Connacht titles, Galway have enjoyed a good League to date - reaching Division One for the first time in six years and the quarter-finals for the first time in 11.
"I decided to give it another go," says McNamara. "I didn't want to go out in such a bad way. I wouldn't be one of the best goalkeepers in the country but I'm not one of the worst either. Pat Comer (Galway's other goalkeeper and a former Irish international) is probably a better 'keeper than me but I've hit form at the right time. It helps of course to know that Pat's breathing down my neck, a bit of additional pressure, not a bad thing."
On top of Galway's progress in the League, there has been the FBD success (maybe not in itself earth-shattering but part of the trend), the promise of a good under-21 team and some fine performances from Galway players in IT Tralee's Sigerson Cup success. And of course Corofin's All-Ireland.
Although the club has achieved tremendous things at under-age level and allowing that the cleverly devised semi-final win over Derry favourites Dungiven was the most significant result of the campaign, winning the final had eluded Connacht clubs for the 27 years of the championship. Connacht's overall record in finals must have prompted some misgivings?
"It was hard to get it out of the back of your mind. Ray Silke, Tony Murphy and Paul McGettigan spoke to us and tried to wipe our minds of all that. Then the younger players had won so much on the way up that they weren't as bothered; the older players were more nervous. I hadn't played there since 1983 as a minor."
He remembers the save which might have rescued the final. Such was Corofin's closing dominance that the fine balance at that stage in the 50th minute was quickly forgotten in the aftermath.
"Eddie Barr came in. It was a good ball but I don't think he took enough care over the shot. I suppose he felt he was certain of scoring. The way we were going, it was hard to see us being beaten, but a goal in championship is nearly worth five points."
