Spectacular exit so fitting for Rainbow

DARRAGH Ó SÉ/THE MIDDLE THIRD:Well-known former players from all over Ireland and loyal Kildare football supporters turned out in force for a farewell game for a man who has served his county with tremendous dedication for two decades

I SPENT the weekend involved in the right sort of bailout. On Saturday the GAA in Kildare staged a testimonial game for Anthony Rainbow with the benefits going to two charities. Congratulations to everybody involved.

We had a great time and it struck me that if it was down in Kerry we wouldn’t get a hundred people through the gates but in Kildare they pulled in almost 5,000 people. At €20 a ticket in these tough times it says a lot about Anthony Rainbow.

The format was the current Kildare team against a Rest of Ireland team which was a star-studded who’s who of has-beens! Kieran McGeeney played for us. Paul McGrane. Peter Canavan. Séamus Moynihan. Michael Donnellan. Glen Ryan. Stevie McDonnell, Senan Connell. A few more.

And myself.

A midfield general, economic with the runs but playing a generous supporting (“G’wan yourself. Take them on.”) role while holding the position. Very much in the style of Jan Molby in his heyday. Warm up Jan, you’re coming off.

I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who looked into wearing a corset for the gut. There were a lot of fellas the following morning who I’d say were finding it hard to take the first five steps.

That made the craic in the dressingroom beforehand all the better. Every fella in there trying to let on that he was fitter than he is, holding in the guts, hoping not to pull anything while bending to tie the laces. Looking around at the old faces. Peter Canavan! Seeing him again! Class is permanent. Watching him in Newbridge I was gaping. Selling the dummies, the timing, the bravery. He told me before the game that if he pointed left it meant he was going right and vice versa. The heart sank. How could us poor Kerry fellas ever have beaten him if he was playing by mirror all those years. Who knew?

Best moment? Peter the Great gave me a pass. I gave it back. The beauty of it was that there was three fellas closing in on him when he got it back. I hold it against the Kildare players involved that he wasn’t killed outright.

All I can say to Kerry people is that I did my best.

We all had a hard time of it except of course McGeeney. Not that I believe he is any fitter than us, just that if you are a young wing forward in Kildare you’ll figure out that your county career could be short if you make a laugh of Geezer in front of 5,000 locals.

So McGeeney had it easy. That’s my view. You learn a lot in gatherings like that. There’s no recession in Sligo anyway if Eamon O’Hara’s tan is anything to go by. Free sunbeds seem to be the order of the day.

The game itself was very enjoyable. It was great to line out on a pitch alongside Paul McGrane and not have to be looking over my shoulder all the time, bracing myself and worrying about where he was. Especially with John Bannon refereeing. John has a strong stomach.

It was a great pleasure to see young fellas of Kildare getting the oul tips and bumps off McGrane, the sort of thing I used to get. Will make men of them.

Glen Ryan was one of the older dinosaurs on view in our Jurassic Park XV. Glen played at centre back. You’d think he’d have had sense! He was throwing himself in there like a fella with a death wish. I reckon Glen had decided that he might as well throw himself in front of his man as he wasn’t going to catch up with him when he went past.

Graham Geraghty was there. Back to haunt Kildare. He scored two goals from wing back. I thought it was admirable that he was even able to get back to his position after the first goal.

We came in at half-time and we were four up I think. I knew we had given a good account of ourselves.

Same in the second half. We were lucky though we had the cutest manager in the game. Mick O’Dwyer, 75 going on 29. I noticed with admiration that Micko was quick about putting on subs when needed and he was very slow about taking off the men they were replacing. The man will never retire. If he did he’d fade away.

What keeps him going? He is 75 and his legendary enthusiasm for the fray hasn’t dampened yet. Of course in Kildare he is still highly regarded. He was in for the cups of tea beforehand and doing the rounds of the players. No Jack Charlton stuff either, calling fellas the wrong names. He remains as sharp as ever.

The great man was talking to Glen Ryan about business. Micko was talking about having a chipper in a suburb on the outskirts of Dublin. Glen wondered why anybody would do that. Micko looked at him patiently and explained. “The Dubs have chips for breakfast and chips for dinner and chips to their tea and supper. That’s plenty of chips. You’d never see a poor day.”

Glen nodded.

Never question Micko on football or business.

The man of the moment of course was Anthony Rainbow. Hard to imagine that he played his first game for Kildare in 1990. The attendance of players and fans at Newbridge was a mark of the regard he is held in. A true player’s player. The standing ovations for him recognised the massive contribution he made to Kildare football and the length of it. I can’t see that longevity happening again in our time.

The slag on Anthony all weekend of course was that you only last that long if you pull out of the rough stuff. In fairness though he never did. He was as tough and wholehearted a fella as you would ever meet on a pitch.

I played against him several times and got to know him on the All Stars trip in 2000 and in Australia on an Aussie Rules trip. He was hugely popular and coming from an army background his weakness was tidiness. So we’d get great enjoyment out of messing up his room. We knew he couldn’t sleep without cleaning it up.

He was (and is) one of those fellas. There is a genuine niceness about him and a popularity that very few fellas have. Not many lads can play for 20 years and be universally liked. It was great for the Kildare people to send him off on their own terms. A standing ovation coming on and going off. That’s the way to say goodbye.

We went back to the Keadeen for some grub and refreshment, sitting down afterwards and having a chat and slagging fellas and hopping balls. The slagging and the remembering went on till the early hours of the morning. We mightn’t have pace but we have stamina.

I came back down to Kerry the next day with Séamus Moynihan and we chatted about it all, how hugely enjoyable the game and the evening after it was. How much fun it was having a laugh with fellas we’d knocked lumps off, and the no-holds-barred slagging till the early hours of the morning. I looked at Moynihan when we got near home. And it struck me. We are now, officially, oul fellas.