I’D PLAY FOR A MAN AND HIS DOG
Virus strife means Macauley’s taking nothing for granted
IF this is to be Michael Darragh Macauley’s last dance, he has already accepted that it is likely he will step it out in silence. The seven-time All-Ireland winner celebrated his 33rd birthday last week and does not need telling that time is not his friend. But the fire still burns.
He has not featured for Dublin since a late cameo in the dying moments of last September’s All-Ireland final replay win over Kerry.
After undergoing groin surgery at the start of the year, he set himself a target of making it back for the start of Dublin’s Leinster Championship campaign. He could never have envisaged the degree of comfort with which he would beat that deadline.
The price, though, is that when he picks up the threads of an 11-season inter-county career, it will be a surreal experience.
With confidence growing that the winter Championship will take place, not least in the aftermath of Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s declaration that he wants it to proceed as a symbol of national defiance, imagining the game without spectators has become the new challenge.
This is especially true for Dublin whose Championship games are often played out in front of 80,000, in Croke Park, but not this time.
Macauley concedes that picturing this new reality is beyond him, but one of the legacies of having played in the now-defunct interprovincial championships is that it has given him a window into what awaits.
‘One of the best games of football I was ever involved with was Leinster against Ulster in Croke Park.
‘There was about 14 people at the game. It was an unbelievable game but dead silent so it was a strange one. But it looks like it can be done and lads will be happy to do it but it wouldn’t be as much craic, that’s a fact. But lads would be happy to do it.
‘Everyone I have talked to just wants to play ball, be it in front of just one man and his dog, or 80,000 people,’ said Macauley yesterday.
And it is not just the players who want it. Macauley has sensed the desire among the public for the ball to be thrown-in for a November knock-out championship.
‘I don’t know how many times people have asked me on the street, thinking I’ve an insight into what’s going on. They go,
“Are we going to have a Championship this year, please God tell me we’ll have a Championship”.
‘I know how much it means and I know what it means to my mates who will be acting the maggot on Hill 16.
‘I know from speaking to people how much it is missed. It’s no secret. It’ll give a great boost if we can get it up in any form.’
There is still some road to be travelled, logistically and financially, before it will be delivered.
The Taoiseach’s declaration of support for the Championship to proceed will add to speculation that the Government, outside of the €40million it has already ring-fenced for sporting organisations to deal with the pandemic crisis, may be moved to provide funding to allow counties meet the costs of preparing teams for the Championship.
But cash, or a lack of it, will not be an obstacle, insisted Macauley.
‘I am sure, Covid aside, if it has to be done on a more voluntary basis, and if it has to be done to a lower scale, I think it will happen, all things going well.
‘I can’t see the financials, and maybe that’s me being ignorant, but I can’t see it getting in the way.’
However, one thing that can get in the way is the ever-evolving pandemic, one that has already impacted Macauley’s club, Ballyboden St Enda’s.
They had a confirmed case this month which led to their opponents Clann na Gael conceding a junior hurling match rather than risk the danger of infection.
While it had no impact on the club’s footballers, whose defence of their county title has seen them reach the Dublin club championship quarter-finals, it brought home to Macauley the folly of looking too far into the future.
For once the cliché of taking it game by game is an absolute truth.
‘I went out to play a dead rubber championship game against Whitehall last week.
‘It meant nothing but I went into that game going, “Who knows when my next game of football will be?”
‘Literally, it could be a long time.
It’s meant to be next week but it could be a long time. So without getting too cliched, it’s nice as a player to not have to think any farther down the line.
‘It would be mental to start planning your All-Ireland Championship or any of that sort of stuff.
‘You are just going to train your backside off, see how it’s going with the club and then bring on the inter-county. That’s the plan, be ready if it happens, but who knows?’ If it happens, he and Dublin will be ready. Their desire to go again, this time under new manager Dessie Farrell, is a source of neverending curiosity given all they have achieved.
A recent chat with Dublin ’70s legend David Hickey crystallised the key to the group’s motivation. ‘I always name drop David Hickey,’ joked Macauley.
‘He’s an unbelievable character. But he was kind of asking how would a team like ours motivates itself and his suggestion was that everything has to be fun.
‘Everyone has to be enjoying it and I think that’s going to be huge for the lads.
‘I’ve no doubt the lads will train their a** off because that happens without anyone having to ask them to do that.
‘But I think if there’s a sense of fun around the dressing room this year, that’ll be huge and I think as soon as that goes, I’ve no interest in being there as well.’
Michael Darragh Macauley will be appearing on the AIB’s The Toughest Summer which will air tonight on RTÉ One at 10.10pm.
‘I ask myself, who knows when my next game will be?’