Hopes will be high in Donegal that Michael Murphy can lead them back to the promised land after it emerged that the three-time All-Star forward is set for a sensational return in 2025.
The now 35-year-old retired from inter-county football two years ago, having captained the county to Sam Maguire and won five Ulster championships over 15 seasons in green and gold .
But the return of Jim McGuinness as manager, and this year's Ulster SFC victory/run to the All-Ireland SFC semi-finals, appear to have prompted a change of heart.
Stephen Cluxton & Co
In December 2020, Stephen Cluxton cemented his status as the greatest goalkeeper football had ever seen by captaining Dublin to a seventh All-Ireland title, a record sixth in a row and his eighth in total.
Then the 2019 Footballer of the Year vanished from the inter-county scene for 27 months.
Presumed retired, but having characteristically declined to make any such public confirmation, it was a huge surprise when the then 41-year-old returned to Dessie Farrell's panel for a league fixture against Louth in March 2023.
Former Footballer of the Year Jack McCaffrey and three-time All-Star Paul Mannion also returned last year, after absences of three and two seasons respectively, as the Dubs reclaimed Sam.
The triumph made Cluxton, Michael Fitzsimons and captain James McCarthy the first male footballers to win nine All-Irelands.
McCarthy called time on his inter-county career this week, and there is speculation that Cluxton might follow suit.
Though don't expect him to announce it if he does.
Brian Corcoran
At the age of 26 the gifted Cork dual player announced his complete retirement from playing – club and county, football and hurling.
If that was a shock, it was nothing compared to the reaction that greeted news of his return to duty with his club Erin’s Own two and-a-half years later.
Later that season, in May 2004, he returned to championship action with the Rebels.
Corcoran went on to win an All-Ireland and All-Star that season and backed it up with another Celtic Cross, his third, 12 months later.
He retired permanently after the 2005 season.
Séamus Darby
The man that ended Kerry's five in-a-row hopes with the most famous goal in Gaelic football history did so after making a remarkable comebacks to the inter-county scene.
Seamus Darby was part of the Offaly team that won the 1972 All-Ireland, but disappeared off the scene in 1976, not to reappear again until 1982, bar one league game in ’79.
Manager Eugene McGee knew that he could still do a job though and he featured as a substitute in the Leinster semi-final win over Laois before starting the provincial final against Dublin.
Injury ruled the Rhode man out of the All-Ireland semi-final, but he was fit enough for a place on the bench, and the rest was history.
DJ Carey
The Kilkenny hurling great didn't announce his retirement, but when he revealed that he wouldn’t be part of Brian Cody’s panel in 2002 it seemed like he wouldn’t be back.
His last game was the ’01 semi-final defeat to Galway and he played no part in the subsequent league campaign.
Then, almost exactly a year after the previous time he pulled on the black and amber, Carey was picked to start in an All-Ireland semi-final against Tipperary.
He went on to win an All-Ireland that year and captained the Cats to another, his fifth, 12 months later.
Next July, Carey will stand trial on 21 fraud and forgery charges, which he denies.
Stephen O’Neill
At just 27 years old, it seemed as though injury had ended former Footballer of the Year Stephen O’Neill’s playing days for good.
The three-time All-Star forward had called it a day ahead of the start of the 2008 season, though he managed to get his body right and was drafted back into manager Mickey Harte’s panel just weeks before the All-Ireland final with Kerry.
His return was complete when he came on as a second- half substitute, but he refused his third winners’ medal saying that he felt he hadn’t really played his part.
The Clan na Gael man played on until 2014.
Jimmy Keaveney and Diarmuid Connolly
Jimmy Keaveney walked away from Dublin in 1972 when he was still only 29 years old.
When Kevin Heffernan took over as manager before the start of the 1974 season one of the first jobs on his to-do list was to persuade Keaveney to come out of retirement.
And out of retirement he came, the deadly free-taker going on to win three All-Ireland medals, three All Stars, play in six consecutive finals and earn cult status among the Dubs fans on Hill 16.
His St Vincent's club-mate Diarmuid Connolly made a comeback in 2019 after a similar period away - having played just half a league match in almost two years.
Connolly won a sixth All-Ireland that September as Dublin sealed the historic five-in-a-row with a replay win over Kerry.
A version of this story was previously published in 2019
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