LAST February, Ryan Dougan arrived in Bali.

It was a little over three weeks after he’d stood shoulder-to-shoulder with Paul Mannion for an hour in Croke Park.

The Glen full-back won the battle but a half-fit Mannion won the war. Kilmacud finished the day as champions.

A fortnight ago, Dougan won both and it was only when he departed the scene that it almost collapsed on itself for the Watties.

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Seven points up, they felt his hamstring was one sprint away from tearing and withdrew him. Mannion, quiet up until then, suddenly burst into life.

They’re not dissimilar beasts. Mannion has seven All-Irelands with Dublin but twice took breaks from inter-county football. He spent most of the first spell in China and a bit in Colombia then dipped into life in Boston a few years ago.

Jack McCaffrey was famously of similar disposition, having taken big chunks out of his playing career to pursue humanitarian projects in Africa among other things.

When Glen lost to Kilmacud a year ago yesterday, Conor Glass and Ethan Doherty were back in Owenbeg playing for Derry six days later against Limerick.

Ryan Dougan was planning his latest adventure. So too were Jack Doherty and Tiarnán Flanagan.

Dougan arrived in Bali on February 16. Doherty and Emmett Bradley both joined them with their partners for a holiday. They spent time in Uluwatu, which translates as ‘Land’s End’.

The world didn’t end because Glen lost an All-Ireland final.

It doesn’t end now that they’ve won one either.

Jack Doherty moved on towards Australia and Emmett Bradley came home again.

Over the next five months, Dougan and his girlfriend Aoife spent a bit of time in Singapore, a few days in Vietnam, a couple of weeks in the Philippines and finally Thailand.

This was normal life for them.

Of the two years that Glen have reached Croke Park, Dougan has spent eleven months on the other side of the world.

Glen had lost their first Ulster semi-final to Kilcoo in December ‘21 and the pair touched down in Jakarta in early January. Days later, the country was left reeling from an earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter Scale.

They moved on to Bali, where he quickly signed up for a bit of soccer with Balibar Crawlers FC, scoring a hat-trick on his first appearance. Thailand and Vietnam were taken in before they returned home in the middle of July, just as Glen were moving into championship mode.

He works in software development. His social media feed is a frenzy of him sitting coding on picnic benches around the world. It is remote working on a different plain.

Have laptop, will travel.

© The Irish News