PHILLY: DUO CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE
DUBLIN great Philly McMahon reckons Jack McCaffrey is a ‘freak of nature’ who can pick up where he left off in 2023.
McCaffrey and Paul Mannion have both made themselves available again for Dublin, despite missing all of the last two seasons.
In McCaffrey’s case, he also missed the majority of the 2020 campaign and neither have started a Championship game since the 2019 All-Ireland final replay against Kerry.
Speaking on Virgin TV’s Ireland AM show, McMahon said he ‘wouldn’t go that far’ when asked if ‘Dublin are back’ following the pair’s surprise return but said it will significantly boost squad depth.
“Definitely bringing these two lads back is going to bring a certain energy around the county and it’s probably the best time to bring them back, when we’re playing in Division 2, it’s a nice way of easing them back into football,” said eight-time AllIreland winner McMahon.
“Paul Mannion has been shooting the lights out for his club and he’s been over in the States enjoying that side of football and having his time off to enjoy life as well.
“Inter-county brings a lot of strain outside of sport.”
On McCaffrey, who was a water carrier for his club Clontarf’s recent Dublin SFC relegation playoff defeat to Raheny, McMahon said: “Jack hasn’t played much but he’s a freak of nature in that he could show up tomorrow and play unbelievably, so I think they’re going to strengthen the squad.
Squad
“Even if they don’t start a huge amount of games, I think they’re going to strengthen that squad. It’s going to make a difference.”
Boss Dessie Farrell has promised to bring in more new players from the club scene too despite using a total of 51 players in all competitions this year.
McMahon featured in Dublin’s last AllIreland win in 2020 but they’ve come up short to Mayo and Kerry in semi-finals since.
“The cliched thing that we always said when I was playing was that it wasn’t going to last forever and that’s happened,” said McMahon.
“It’s two years now that we haven’t won an All-Ireland. We weren’t far off last season, the lads were a point away from taking it to extra-time but you can’t think that way because if you do, there’ll be a bigger separation.
“I do think there’s a bit of hunger and a bit of fight in that group so we’ll see what happens.”