Oldest player you know of To make his debut for his County.

[stew]

I was thinking about this in relation to Armagh and the best i can come up with is me aul mate Miko McAleavey who played for Armagh for the first time aged 29. I am sure there are older than that but I would be interested to know who the players are that had late starts in their intercounty careers.

Benny O'Kane cant have been a spring chicken either when he finally got a run.

[anglocelt39]

Bit of an anomaly between thread heading and your nomination Stew so apologies won't be comparing like with like. I'm fairly sure Enda Sheridan was keeping nets for the Cavan Hurlers in his fifties, dedication or what

[Oakleafer93]

What age is Tadgh Kenelly?

[Yes I Would]

27 i think

[Sandy Hill]

stew, did you mean the oldest age that a player made his first appearance for his county?

[balladmaker]

I remember a fella coming on for Down in the Marshes many moons ago in a League game, Donal Bell.  He must have been a fair age at that time, was just before the Pete McGrath tenure started.

[brianboru00]

Paul Kelly made his debut for Roscommon this year against Leitrim - Hes 30.

[Gnevin]

Ringy was 43 when he gave it up

[Lar Naparka]

Billy Fitzpatrick was 42 when he played championship senior for Mayo in Croke Oark.
He scored a point too.

[irunthev]

In 1999 Don Kelly from Derry played his first ever senior Championship game in goal for London against Galway. He was 33 at the time. The thing though was that Don already had both an All Ireland senior and minor winners medal with Derry. He played in the 1983 All Ireland Minor Final and was sub to Damian McCusker in 1993 in the senior final. It was his only ever Championship match. He had played Nat League prior to that though. Also, in 1998 London manager Tommy McDermott played against Westmeath in a Nat League game in Castletowngeoghan. He was 37 at the time. McDermott had won an Ulster Senior medal in 1983 with Donegal.

[Dinny Breen]

Martin McIntyre was 34 when he made his debut for Kildare in the O'Byrne 3 years ago. John Divilly was 29 when he made his championship debut for Kildare.

[brokencrossbar1]

What age was yer man Deasy who played full back for the Dubs in 1995,  I reckon he was 32-33 when he made his debut?

[T Fearon]

Stew is  Miko really John Mc Aleavey? A sound lad alright.He had a slight speech impediment and once announced at school one morning  that "ships" (as opposed to "chips") were on thre lunch time menu, which happened about once a year in those days

[5 Sams]

I remember a fella coming on for Down in the Marshes many moons ago in a League game, Donal Bell.  He must have been a fair age at that time, was just before the Pete McGrath tenure started.

Donal Bell played quite a few times for Down in the 80s....however he always had grey hair so he looked older than he actually was.

[thejuice]

reading the paper today said Dermot Earley made his Kildare debut at 30, he's one hell of a man to be still playing. Would be great for him to land more silver ware this year.