Clarke quits Down panel
John Clarke has stepped away from senior inter-county football, going public on his decision to quit the Down panel this week.
It has emerged that Clarke spoke to Down manager James McCartan earlier this week about his reasons for wanting to quit.
Confirming his decision in an interview published in today's Irish News, the 28-year-old forward said that the 'time was right' and explained that he left the Mourne County set-up 'on good terms'.
"I thought the time was right for the time being anyway - never say never in football - but as of now I've played my last game for Down," he said.
"I've got a lot of time for James McCartan and I think the feeling is mutual, so I've left on good terms."
Clarke started last month's Ulster SFC quarter-final defeat to Armagh at the Morgan Athletic Grounds, but was called ashore after 23 minutes as McCartan replaced him with Conor Maginn.
Reflecting on things afterwards and acknowledging some of the 'cowardly' criticism of the team's performance, he conceded that his heart is not in it to continue playing at this level.
"The Armagh defeat made me think a lot. You get a lot of criticism. You don't mind people criticising you to your face, but you do have your critics who sit behind computer screens and are on discussion boards, which is cowardly.
"Players and managers alike take a lot of abuse on those things. That's not the reason why I'm retiring - but there's criticism and there's criticism.
"Definitely, after the Armagh game it just got to a point where I just thought it wouldn't be fair. I wouldn't be one for doing things half-hearted and if I wasn't going back fully committed with my heart in it, there was probably no point.
"So I just thought I'd be doing myself an injustice and I'd be doing the team an injustice."
Clarke's younger brother Martin, 23, remains a key component of the Down team, but there has been speculation linking him with a return to Australian Rules club Collingwood later this year.
The All-Star attacker is currently holidaying in Australia and reportedly visited the Melbourne-based club last week, meeting up with former team-mates and watching the team train and play matches.
Insisting that talk of Clarke's return to Aussie Rules is premature, Collingwood's football manager Geoff Walsh said last week: "I don't think his reason for coming back here is to talk to us about playing AFL footy.
"He'll go to games and come to training but I don't think he's flying across the world to talk to us about playing footy next year."
