THE BOYS ARE JACK IN TOWN
Mood
(left)
THEY haven’t gone away, you know.
Just when the talk had turned to Kerry being primed for dominance, Dublin have cleared their throat.
Manager Dessie
Farrell did it in that lowkey way of his, something he has in common with his predecessor, Jim Gavin.
When the prodigal son, Diarmuid Connolly, returned to the fold under Gavin, he released the news on Dubs TV, buried at the end of a mundane squad update.
Farrell repeated the trick yesterday following club championship games.
A few lines about looking at players and talking up a couple of lads on the fringes and, then, the mic drop.
Jack McCaffrey and Paul Mannion would be rejoining the Dublin football panel for the 2023 season.
Suddenly, the mood music all over Ireland, not just Dublin, has changed.
These are two box office players, those rare breed that neutrals queue up to watch play.
For all the talk of Kerry’s rise, and David Clifford’s genius, and Seán Ó Sé’s miracle free, Dublin lost in that game without Con O’Callaghan.
They were obviously without McCaffrey, gone since 2019, and Mannion, gone since 2020.
Dublin with O’Callaghan, McCaffrey and Mannion... now you’re sucking diesel.
Mannion has had some injury issues in the last year, picking up another knock in Kilmacud Crokes’ win over Cuala on Saturday.
But we’ve seen enough of him at club level to know how much Dublin have missed him. He is a level above all the Dublin forwards we saw in 2022, bar O’Callaghan.
As for McCaffrey, he is the ultimate big-game player.
Just count the amount of times he won the man-of-the-match awards in All-Ireland semi-finals and finals.
Of the two,
McCaffrey’s return is the more surprising as he has been gone for longer, has a particularly demanding job as a junior doctor and hasn’t even been playing club football for a while.
McCaffrey is a wonderful footballer, but he’s never let his life be defined by football.