Shortly after helping Raheny retain their senior status with a relegation playoff win over neighbours Clontarf last year, Brian Howard hopped on a plane and traded his gear bag for a travel bag.
Between October and February, the two-time All Star spent the guts of 18 weeks travelling around southeast Asia, taking in Bali and Indonesia. He was home for a fortnight over Christmas during which time he linked up briefly with the Dublin squad before heading off again, but the final destination was always to arrive back in the Dubs dressingroom during the 2023 league.
However, nothing was guaranteed. Howard realised by cutting ties to go travelling with his girlfriend and their friends that he was gambling with a place on the Dublin team.
“I was under no illusion, I knew it was going to be tough to get back in. When I came back, I didn’t play in some games I was fully fit for, which is just credit to the squad depth,” he recalls. “I wasn’t just handed a jersey back, I had to work for it.
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“Thankfully, I have played with Dublin since development squads at under-13, so I haven’t had an opportunity to go away and it was something I had always wanted to do.
“I thought it was the right time, it was a huge risk to take but I enjoyed it, the hunger never left and I’m hungrier more than ever now.”
His first appearance of the season was as a late sub in Dublin’s round five defeat to Derry at Celtic Park in early March and he also came off the bench in their round six win over Meath in Navan.
Howard didn’t start in Dublin’s Leinster SFC opener against Laois, coming on during that encounter, and did not feature at all in the provincial semi-final win over Kildare. But he started the decider against Louth and has remained in the first 15 ever since.
During his time away, the versatile middle third player tried to keep up to speed with Dublin’s league matches and he also stuck to a training regime.
“You sort of owe it to the lads to come back in decent shape, if I came back out of shape or sort of unfit it would have been disrespectful to the lads,” he adds.
“I was doing a good bit over there and also keeping tabs on what was going on with tactics, watching the games back then and trying to contribute wherever I could to younger lads, picking up the phone, ringing them and checking how they were getting on, stuff like that.”
But if going travelling meant the Dublin dressingroom door would have been closed to Howard for 2023, he would not have gone.
“I love playing for Dublin and representing the county,” he says. “It’s something I see myself doing for the next couple of years until I’m not able to any longer. I had a conversation with Dessie and said if there was a risk of not being able to get back in the squad then I wouldn’t go, I would have sacrificed the travelling.”
Less than 24 hours after helping Dublin overcome Monaghan two weeks ago, Howard made the short trip back to Croke Park the following afternoon to watch Kerry against Derry in the second All-Ireland semi-final.
“I wasn’t doing anything else so I said I’d tip in,” he says. “It was actually an amazing game, I sort of expected it to be touch and go the whole time. I knew from playing Derry twice this year that they’d put it up to Kerry, just the way they play and they have some amazing players.”
On Sunday, Howard might well be designated as Dublin’s floating player to sweep in front of perhaps the most amazing player to have ever graced the game.
If Michael Fitzsimons is given the man-marking detail on David Clifford, Dublin could deploy a covering player to aid the challenge of trying to curtail the Kerry captain.
“You can’t say anything other than he was outstanding, he’s sort of the most in-form player in the country,” says Howard of Clifford.
“He’s obviously someone that we have to look out for the next day but if you put all your attention on David Clifford, then there’s the likes of Seán O’Shea, his brother Paudie, Dara Moynihan, they’re top-class forwards too.
“It’s not a one-man army up there and it’d be naive to say just shut down Clifford and you shut down Kerry. It’s not like that at all.”
