Laois footballer Mark Timmons made his 50th championship appearance for the county in 2024.
The 2024 edition of the Tailteann Cup will get underway on Sunday and it is set to be a special day for Laois’s current longest serving player.
Graiguecullen’s Mark Timmons has been named to start at corner back and if he does so, it will be his 50th championship appearance for his county.
Thanks to Eoin Culliton of the Laois GAA Bible, we know that the defender made his debut for Laois back in 2008. It started in the O’Byrne Cup that January against Wexford.
His league debut, under Sean Dempsey, came against Donegal that April with his first championship bout in a 0-15 to 0-13 Leinster quarter final win over Wicklow.
Timmons made his debut on the same day that Michael Nolan, Cahir Healy, John O’Loughlin, Kevin Meaney and Colm Kelly (St Joseph’s) made theirs.
But aside from Healy who is now playing for London, Timmons is the only survivor.
Sunday against Carlow is set to be the 148th time overall that Timmons has pulled on a blue and white jersey.
On the weekend of his 38th birthday, that will leave him fifth on the all-time list of appearances.
Ross Munnelly is out in front on 229 with Mick Lawlor (168), John O’Loughlin (167) and Padraig Clancy (157) the only ones ahead of Timmons.
When it comes to championship appearances only, there are just three players ahead of Timmons.
Once again Ross Munnelly has the most with 81 while John O’Loughlin and Padraig Clancy are joint second with 56.
Interesting, Sunday is set to be just the second time in his entire career that Timmons will wear the number four jersey.
He has been full back 32 times, centre back nine times, wore the number two jersey four times and was a sub three times.
Over the years, Timmons has played in every division of the National League with Laois.
He won Division 4 of the league twice (2018 and 2024) and lost Division 3 (2019) and Division 2 (2011) finals.
He also played in the 2018 Leinster final which Laois lost to Dublin.
Timmons has played under eight different managers – two spells of Justin McNulty plus Sean Dempsey, Tomas O Flaharta, Mick Lillis, Peter Creedon, John Sugrue, Mike Quirke and Billy Sheehan.
His commitment to his county for the best part of the last 16 years has been unwavering and he’ll be hoping to pick up one more piece of silverware by the end of this season.
SEE ALSO – Check out all our top stories from our 2024 Remembered series here
