JACK’S BACK: HOW McCAFFREY CONQUERED CROKER AGAIN
McCaffrey felt he owed a debt to his team-mates Sharing success with his dad Noel is always special Bringing joy to supporters’ lives is huge privilege
THE morning after the day before, Jack McCaffrey walks into the lobby of the Gibson Hotel and slips straight into the middle of a media scrum.
Twelve months ago, his All-Ireland final lasted just five minutes before he ruptured his cruciate ligament, but any doubts that might halt the stride of the 2015 Player of the Year were put to bed on Sunday when his jet-heeled performance was rewarded with a man-of-the-match performance.
It has provided McCaffrey with the kind of perspective that makes for compelling listening.
Q: Is this your most satisfying All-Ireland final win because of what happened last year?
A: This was the first time I’ve been on the pitch when the final whistle blew in an All-Ireland final. It was so satisfying, such a relief.
Cian [O’Sullivan] had to go off injured early on. The lads got me out of jail last year and pulled me over the line when I couldn’t go out and do it myself.
To be able to do that for a teammate this year was really, really special.
We spoke as a group on the Friday before the game and I said I was going to work so hard and do everything I could because this time last year I felt I was on the cusp of a really good performance.
I felt that I was on the money and it was taken away from me unfortunately. There was a bit of a moment when the clock ticked past five minutes where I said, ‘Right, bonus territory now, we’re in the money’.
Obviously, you’re caught up in the match so much but there are these gaps when there’s someone down injured where you kind of take stock of it versus last year.
So much of my game yesterday was just trotting up and down the pitch to create space.
It wasn’t flashy, it was just ‘do it’. It was a real source of inspiration for me. Who am I to not make a 20-metre run? This time last year I wasn’t able to.
Q: That photograph post-match with your father, Noel, radiated happiness.
A: He had been a bag of nerves for the last couple of days before the final. If anyone wasn’t underestimating Tyrone it was the McCaffrey household. He has just been all over the place.
Every year it seems that an AllIreland final brings a slightly different dynamic to it. And this year, I finished training on Tuesday and I got a call from Dad asking did I get hurt, was I fine, was I alright?
I think he was so relieved and happy that I just lasted the game. And obviously that the result fell the way it did.
He’s the first man I look for as soon as the final whistle blows. I’ve photos with him after every All-Ireland final we’ve won. It was really special to be able to find him.
Q: What impact did Bernard Brogan’s determination to come back from a cruciate knee surgery in an effort to make the matchday panel have on the group?
A: He just ran out of time unfortunately. If the All-Ireland final had been on the weekend it traditionally is he would have had another two weeks of football under him and he could have been in the mix. I was chatting to him yesterday and for me, Bernard Brogan made the transition from an excellent Dublin footballer to a Dublin legend over the last season because he was given the easy way out.
A man who has won absolutely everything, such a silky footballer, such a once-in-a-generation player and to have an injury happen at his age and the point that he’s at in his life, children and his business and everything, no one would have begrudged him if he said, ‘I’m off ’.
He is such a selfless bloke, he was chatting to the younger lads and he’s the kind of man who doesn’t talk often when we have meetings but when he talks everybody listens because it’s something that’s worth saying.
I had massive respect for him already but I absolutely love that man now and I cannot put into words how somebody who just didn’t have to go the extra yard and he’s set such a standard now for the rest of us to live up to.
Q: You could appreciate the physical and mental toll its takes to come back from that kind of injury in such a short space of time?
A: He’s not the kind of fella who’d be coming into training, ‘Jesus lads, I’m after doing this, this and this’.
He gave himself every chance and I remember the first time seeing him running, I couldn’t walk at that point in my recovery and he was running up and down. He couldn’t walk either at one point but he was still out there with boots on.
I’m not going to speak for Bernard, I can only say that it’s been
incredibly tough for him but he’s done a remarkable job, and I hope he’s around for a couple more years.
Q: What was the most satisfying aspect of your performance in the final?
A: I think I figured out I’m actually a defender as opposed to some loose attacking player. I left the shooting boots at home unfortunately. I really enjoyed it and to get a turnover (he stripped Mattie Donnelly of possession) in the injury-time period of an All-Ireland final and to feel the momentum shift around that was something I haven’t experienced before. It gave me immense satisfaction. I’d have to say that’s one of the best performances that I’ve ever put in.
Q: You got as big a buzz out of that tackle on Donnelly?
A: Yeah, I did. It’s great to turn a perceived weakness into a strength and I’ve seen it in games over the last number of years that teams will get the ball and can see that I’m eyeing them up and they are thinking, “Oh it’s McCaffrey, I’ll just go at him, he can’t tackle” and to be able to invite that on and then turn them over is great. I was a horrific tackler. I was weak, small enough. Relying on my pace to kind or recover when I lost men or whatever.
We have some of the best tacklers in the country. You look at Jonny Cooper and his technique is incredible. It’s not just as simple as running into a fella with the ball as we all know.
And, trying to get in the way. There is a bit more to it than that. It was something I wasn’t very good at, and I’d like to think I’ve got significantly better at it.
It’s not enough to just want to keep playing to your strengths, you’ve to take the other side of things and improve them.’
Q: You are now a qualified doctor, how difficult is it not to bring your work home?
A: It’s a really humbling space to be in. When I’m at work I’m chasing down scans, doing various bits and bobs and there is no point where I am making a life-saving intervention. If I wasn’t there everyone would tip along just as well but you do get to experience some families that are in incredibly tough times.
I’ve come across this in my personal life as well. We went to visit a young man on Monday, myself and a few of the lads, who is passing away, an 18-year-old fella, to know that he is going to be sitting there with a Dublin jersey on cheering you on, rather than diminishing what football is because of how trivial it is, it just makes you appreciate it so much, the release it gives people, the joy that people get from watching us play football... it’s kind of mindblowing when you sit down and think about it.’
Q: Humility as a group is important to you?
A: I agree, it’s one of our absolutely key strengths that we don’t get ahead of ourselves. I would challenge anyone to take a look at our group and have a cut off us. I think when we cross the white line we’ll kill you, no two ways about it, we’ll do whatever it takes to win.
But outside a football context, I’m looking at some people getting together to go visit the children’s hospital and it’s something I take great pride in. I know someone who came up to me and said “I met Philly McMahon at a charity thing” and Philly never said it to me, never said it at training but he was there, the same can be said from No 1 through the 30, it’s something we really try not to lose sight of. It’s something really special for us.’