‘They don’t make them like this man anymore’

By Shaun Casey

AFTER 19 years in the blue and white of Monaghan, Darren Hughes has hung up the boots and he will go down as one of the Monaghan greats, says his younger brother Kieran, who soldiered with him at club and county level.

The pair helped the Farney County end a 25 year wait for an Ulster title in 2013, beating then All-Ireland champions Donegal in the final, before collecting the Anglo Celt cup for a second time two years later.

At club level, the pair have shared many glory days with Scotstown being the dominant force in the Monaghan Senior Championship. But after 19 years of service with the county, Hughes has decided to step away.

Kieran made his big brother the compliment of being “a managers dream”. His availability and versatility down through the years just proved that he would do absolutely anything for the Monaghan cause.

“That team was unbelievable,” Hughes said of the Ulster title winning sides. “You had Vinny (Corey), Dessie (Mone), Owen Lennon, Paul Finlay, Darren, ‘Mansy’ (Conor McManus) and when you look back now, it was just an incredible group of boys.

“His most valuable asset was his availability, and it was one thing that didn’t work for me as much but that is the most valuable asset is the availability to the team and for Darren, he had a few knocks and wraps but nothing major.

“He had hip surgery in 2013, but he came back from that flying. His body looked after him incredibly well and I would have always said it, he was a manager’s dream, anytime a manager looked at his team sheet, Darren was always on it.”

Back in 2010, Hughes was a surprise inclusion in Seamus McEnaney’s starting team to face Armagh in the championship. The surprise wasn’t that Hughes was playing but rather where he was playing. The Scotstown man started the game between the sticks.

“His attitude was that wherever the manager asked him to go, he was going to do it. That day in goals in Casement, that’s what ‘Banty’ wanted him to do and there was no arguments, he went and got a pair of gloves the day before the game.

“Nowadays boys would kick up arguments and cause hassle but there was never anything like that with Darren. I probably wish he stayed in goals a bit longer because he kicked a right few kickouts to me.

“The sweeper role definitely suited him down through the years too, his reading of the game was unbelievable and then his tackling ability and his strength as well was unreal in that area. He’s been some stalwart, and you’ll do well to find another guy that can do that for 19 years.”

Hughes once again showed his determination and drive to make it back to county level in 2025 having suffered a serious leg injury against Cavan in the first round of the Ulster Championship and the easy thing to do was to pack it in there and then.

But he made it back and played one final season under Gabriel Bannigan as Monaghan claimed the Division Two league title, earning an immediate return to top tier football, and reached the All-Ireland quarter-finals.

“I knew a week or two after the injury that he wasn’t going to pack it in, I just knew that he saw it as a challenge to prove that his body was capable of coming back and giving it another rattle,” said Kieran Hughes.

“That would have been an awful way (to retire). There isn’t a script written with these sorts of things, but it would have been an awful way to finish it off with an injury like that against the local rivals in your home ground.

“Now is definitely the best time because he’s put the body through everything so it’s time to, maybe not relax but look at the other side now and see what he can give back towards the club in the next few years.”

His absence from the changing room next year will be massive. Hughes has been a regular face in the Monaghan dressing room since 2006 and his experience, leadership and resolve will be sorely missed.

“They don’t make them like this man anymore,” Kieran added of his older sibling. “He’s an unreal man to have around and being his brother and listening to him over the years, you’d hope some of the younger lads have been looking up to him.

“He’s going to be a big miss on and off the field. He brought an energy, and he would have wanted the dressing room to be in a better place when he left than when he started way back.”