CIARÁN Whelan's debut season of 1996 marked the end of an era for Dublin football.

The All-Ireland winning team of the previous year had begun to erode, they never matched the achievements of '95 and formed a fading force, failing to land even a provincial crown again until most of that group had shuffled off into inter-county retirement.

The Raheny man, though, was one of the few green shoots of Mickey Whelan's two-year reign as Dubs boss. As a tall, athletic 19-year-old, he started at wing-forward in the Dublin team beaten by Meath in that year's Leinster final. He kicked two points, too, before moving to midfield -- his home, mostly, for the next 13 distinguished seasons in blue.

Now though, confirmation of his inter-county retirement spells the conclusion of another era in the ever colourful landscape of Dublin football. Six Leinster medals, two All Stars and a wheelbarrow full of memories later, he's decided -- not lightly, it must be said -- against going to the well and putting his 33-year-old limbs through the pain and the sacrifice one more time.

"I was clear in my own mind that this year was my last year and I kind of made up my mind that I was giving it one last go under the new management," Whelan explains. "Even if I had have played more this year, I just know from the training this year that I found it very, very tough.

"I found it tough to recover. I found it tough to get to any sort of level of performance during training. I didn't think I was able physically for another year. Also, the time factor and the commitments and the fact that I have a young family, I had to make the decision to move on from my own perspective."

Disappointments? He's had a few. The biggest and most obvious of which was the failure to land an All-Ireland with Dublin. Most recently, the Boys in Blue have exited the championship with surprisingly spectacular defeats in successive seasons, firstly to Tyrone last summer and then this year's unprecedented demise to Kerry.

"What happened against Tyrone -- you can accept that happening once," Whelan says. "But happening twice, you've got to look more closely at it. As for what went wrong, it's still kind of mind-boggling but the form going into it was good. The Kildare game, we went right to the line against a good, solid side. And we should have been in a better position going in against Kerry.

Wounds

"Whether the wounds of last year were re-opened and we dropped the head, you have to look at the whole mental preparation. There was a lot of pre-match nerves. Whether there's an issue with that I am not sure, but I think it's very hard for young players to avoid hype in Dublin as expectations can be unrealistic and maybe that adds pressure to the players."

2009 was very nearly a Ciarán Whelan-less year, though. As the grey rain battered down on Croke Park after the final whistle of last year's miserable All-Ireland quarter-final, Whelan saluted Hill 16 for what seemed like the very last time.

Paul Caffrey and his management team stepped down en masse, but almost as soon as Pat Gilroy had been appointed as his replacement, he sounded out Whelan for one last hurrah.

And Whelan, still craving the ultimate achievement, succumbed. Another year manning the middle for Dublin in front of the sky blue summer hoards. Except it didn't pan out that way.

Having abandoned his most recent seasonal blueprint of sitting out the inter-county winter and early spring, Whelan came straight in before Christmas in the regional tournament organised by the Dublin County Board. He started the first game of the league against Tyrone but a couple of injuries curtailed his championship build up and given management's stated policy of starting players purely on form, Whelan found himself benched for each of Dublin's championship matches this summer.

"It's hard to know," says Whelan of the tactic of playing the entire year at the age of 33. "If you go back and do the full year do you fatigue come the summer? Maybe you play the latter part of the league and you're that much fresher. I certainly found as the year goes on, it gets more physically demanding.

"I tried it both ways. Other years, I came back late in the league and it was quite effective. It worked. But last year, I picked up the eight-week suspension (arising from the Parnell Park brawl with Meath) which affected my build-up to the championship. So I just wanted to make sure I had game time coming into the championship football. I picked up a knock before the Meath game this year and I missed a few pre-championship challenge games, which didn't help. The management ran with the two boys (Darren Magee and Ross McConnell), who were probably in better form at that given time. So I've no issues with that.

"I think Darren and Ross have the ability to go on and prove to be a very good partnership. Maybe with me gone, it will take a bit off the pressure off them," he adds.

Those with memories mature enough to recall Dublin's 'Golden Era' of the '70s likened Whelan's early explosion onto the sky blue canvas to that of Brian Mullins. He could soar with the best of them and had the ability to burst forward with power and speed, leaving a trail of flailing defenders in his wake. He was at one stage, the most prolific midfielder in the country.

Later in his career, when Caffrey took control in the capital, Whelan's game was re-shaped. He did most of his best work between the two 45s and it's a period of his footballing life that he recalls fondly, despite the recurring theme of "what could have been".

Professional

"When Pillar came in and we won four Leinsters in-a-row, he brought with him a good management structure and a very professional approach to the set up," Whelan explains. "Whatever about Tyrone and Kerry, Mayo in 2006 was a huge opportunity. To be seven points up with 20 minutes to go was a huge opportunity missed.

"Obviously in 2002, we were on the crest of a wave as well. We came so close to beating Armagh and maybe if we had have gotten over that we were very young and a fresh and maybe innocent team -- which maybe in some ways wasn't a bad thing back then. Fellas were just playing with a lot of freedom and there was no fear."

There were always two Ciarán Whelans, though. The one which, in the words of Tyrone manager Mickey Harte, provided "the oxygen for Dublin, their crowd, their forwards, everything". Then there was Ciarán Whelan, pantomime villain among opposing supporters.

The man they loved to hate. The 'Battle of Omagh', the brawl with Meath in Parnell Park last summer, spats with Ronan McGarrity and Nigel Crawford -- Whelan's devastating potential always attracted 'special' attention from opposition players and he has been fair game for abuse from the sidelines.

"I was never a player to hold grudges, what happens on the pitch in the heat of battle should stay on the pitch, it's a contact sport. I never hesitated to hold up my hand and apologise for any incidents which should not have happened."

Whelan will play for Raheny against Lucan in Balgriffin on Thursday night in the last 16 of the Dublin SFC, conscious that having missed so much club football over the last 14 years, "it would be nice to get back and enjoy a bit of club football."

But does he see a way back for Dublin, now shorn of their totemic midfielder?

"Yes, they can recover but it will be a serious challenge," he reckons. "All our games are in Croke Park. I think ultimately that's going against Dublin, because I think that when you get to the quarter-final stage, tactically, managers have seen Dublin three or four times in Croke Park. They've seen our style of play.

"Kerry would have used a different game plan when they were playing Sligo or Antrim down in provincial grounds. I just think unfortunately, the position that Dublin are in, they can be put up there and over-hyped a small bit and it's very, very difficult for the players for them to get away from it.

"But I firmly believe that you don't become a bad team overnight." Whelan states. "I have the height of respect for all the players within the Dublin squad who give a massive personal commitment for the betterment of Dublin football. I have been lucky to play with some great players over the years. Yeah, OK, we have to look at where things went wrong, but I don't think we are as bad as we are portrayed. I don't think the Kerry game justifies where Dublin football is at."

- Conor McKeon