HOWEVER IT ENDS, when the story of St Vincent’s season is written there will be a chapter reserved for Mossy Quinn.

“He’s incredible. He’s like Benjamin Button,” teammate Éamon Fennell says about the former inter-county star who has rolled back the years to play some of his most important football at the age of 32.

“The best I’ve ever played with,” adds another Marino clubman.

Within those walls Quinn is a legend, an honour that is not bestowed lightly in a club that has seen greats come and go over the years, all leaving a lasting imprint. Five years ago, he earned his place in that illustrious company.

The great Vincent’s sides of the 50s, 60s and 70s would never have contemplated a 23-year barren spell but by 2007, what was once a bastion had become an irrelevance as far as winners medals were concerned, in Dublin and beyond.

To anyone who remembers St Patrick’s Day 2008, it must have been hard to imagine a time when the twin fates of Quinn and his club would be more closely interlinked. The captain stood tall in the All-Ireland final, pointing 0-7 himself and setting up a vital goal as they beat Nemo Rangers by a single point.

Quinn celebrates with the Andy Merrigan Cup after beating Nemo in 2008. INPHO / Donall Farmer INPHO / Donall Farmer / Donall Farmer

This season, it has been the same old story. There were plenty of times when injury, suspension and the fixture list seemed that they would conspire to prevent Vincent’s from honouring Heffo’s memory.

Every time Vincent’s found a way. More often than not, Quinn was at the heart of it.

In the drawn Dublin final against Ballymun, he scored six points; in the replay the following Wednesday, it was five. A marathon week was capped that Sunday with seven more points in the Leinster quarter-finals against St Loman’s.

The superlative in a series of standout performances came against Summerhill when, with All-Ireland winners Ger Brennan and Diarmuid Connolly suspended, he kicked a remarkable 1-8 of a 1-14 total.

When he looked to be carrying a knock through the closing stages of a dogged Leinster final, he rose again and scored three of the final four points to see off Portlaoise.

Those headline scores only tell a very small part of the story. His daughter Clodagh arrived into a world of fixture chaos; Quinn played five games in the 22 days that followed her birth, as focused and influential as ever.

But then, that’s what people who know him have come to expect of him.

Celebrating Dublin's 2011 All-Ireland win with goalkeeper Stephen Cluxton INPHO / Donall Farmer INPHO / Donall Farmer / Donall Farmer

“He’s a great bloke, he’s a fantastic person and he’s very knowledgeable,” Fennell says.

“When he talks, you listen. He has that kind of presence about him and he has so much respect, not only in Dublin but once you come into Vincent’s, people just look up to him.”

In this team, Quinn is just as important as a creator and mentor.

His keen interest in American sports (he flew out to the Super Bowl with former Dubs team-mate Barry Cahill earlier this month) has helped him to develop a more cerebral approach to the game than the raw skills he has in his locker.

“One of things I remember him talking about was Kobe [Bryant] and how one of his roles is to bring people into the game as much as possible, especially when he was getting older,” Fennell adds. “I think that’s what Mossy is trying to do.

He’s trying to bring more people into the game and take the pressure off him as well because if the other players can do the amount of work that he does, his role becomes a bit easier.

“He’s very good at creating space when there’s no space there and he’s very good at bringing others into the game. He’s been vital for us.”

INPHO / Morgan Treacy INPHO / Morgan Treacy / Morgan Treacy

Quinn’s colleagues in the full-forward line, Ciaran Dorney and Ruairi Trainor, have benefited from the playmaking side of his game, drifting into spaces where they know they will be found.

And although it’s far too early for Vincent’s to be thinking about their next dynasty — “I think you have to win a couple first before you can look at stuff like that,” Quinn said himself — he’s playing his part in bringing the next generation through.

He’s the man who stays behind for extra training with the younger lads, passing on his vast experience.

“When you see him getting the treatment he does in games, not reacting, getting the ball and then reacting in the right way by putting it over the bar or in the back of the net, it’s inspiring and it brings you on,” Fennell says.

“It’s inspiring and we need to have that mentality.

“We need to have that mindset going into these games that we’re going to get a lot of abuse, especially the younger lads, but you take it on the chin and you react by putting the ball over the bar.

He’s vital for us. He’s great on the pitch but more so off the pitch.

This afternoon’s semi-final against Ballinderry in Newry could be the penultimate act of a defining season. Then again, it could just be the beginning of a new chapter for Quinn.

“I still try to get better every time I train,” he told the media shortly before Christmas. “I still believe I can improve as a footballer.

“Whether that’s naive or whatever, I don’t know, but every time I go out there are things I feel I can work on and still keep getting better.”

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