IF you were creating a mould to build an inter-county footballer, you might not use Rory Grugan’s frame but you’d pay good money to harvest his brain.

Grugan retired last week after a career that spanned 13 seasons and 157 appearances for Armagh.

In the sense of having won an All-Ireland, his timing was alright.

But the Ballymacnab man spent a lot of his career representing the little man in a world where the Darby O’Gills gradually bought up all the land.

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The blanket defence that occupied his territory for a decade ought would have made almost every forward of Grugan’s physical stature redundant.

It is very difficult for anyone under six foot and 13 stone to make any kind of sustained inter-county career for themselves unless they have absolutely blinding pace.

Grugan wasn’t slow, but he didn’t have Darran O’Sullivan’s speed either.

But Rory Grugan chiselled out a 13-year career because he was one of the most intelligent footballers of his generation.

The prediction I’m about to make has no grounding in........

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