The sting to enliven Dublin’s A team

Philly McMahon reveals the regimen keeping Dublin on top of the game

To paraphrase Beck, in a time of Killer Bs, Philly McMahon was a wasp.

Paul Casey came up with the name to describe Dublin’s reserves last year, the auxiliaries who Pat Gilroy, David Hickey et al credit with keeping the first team so honest. Casey even brought in stickers, each player affixing them to the crest of their jerseys.

McMahon did so reluctantly. But for fracturing a knee and doing ligament damage at this very stage in last year’s championship against Laois, he would likely have started last year’s All-Ireland final.

In the end, he appeared as a substitute in the win over Kerry. His angst prior to it was felt by the majority of forwards in the Dublin team. One famous story filtered out about him and Alan Brogan going nose-to-nose on one occasion. McMahon smiles at the mention of those anecdotes of heated exchanges.

“As soon as I got back in, I was giving the corner forwards a hard time because I wanted to be playing, no matter what the injury was or how long I was out. There’s only so much I could do in the space that I had.”

Did they extend their gratitude to him for his up close and personal attention? “No, they’d never thank you for it! I’m sure they know it’s helping them, what you do. They let know if you’re going hard anyway.”

A Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) expert, McMahon currently runs three gyms across the capital through his company, BK (Bodily Kinesthetic) Strength and Conditioning.

They currently specialise in programmes such as Rip 60 and TRX, which involves the use of suspensions in workouts. He has a number of Premier League footballers on his books for pre-season training, such as Aston Villa’s Enda Stevens.

Put simply, he doesn’t seem to be a man to be messed with, and certainly he sees no issue with the odd bust-up behind closed doors.

Wasn’t it Dara Ó Cinnéide of this parish who once said a scrap in Kerry training was an indication that all was well there?

“Especially with the stick we get in matches. We have to be able to replicate that. When you play the likes of Tyrone and these northern teams, they like to throw it into you — that’s no disrespect to any other counties — you have to be able to give and take.

“You get away with a lot of it out in the training sessions but at the same time because you don’t want to bring that into your game, you have to be careful what you do.”

A recent example springs to mind. In this year’s O’Byrne Cup final, a couple of Kildare players were involved in verbal jousts with McMahon, lining out for DCU.

Eamonn Callaghan took great pleasure in sticking it to the defender when he goaled only for McMahon to score the winning goal in injury-time. He’s used to the sledging — you take and you give.

“Yeah, especially as a Ballymun player! As a kid you’re always told that one way to sicken people in football is to show with a football what you can do, not retaliation.

“I’ve been doing different sports that’s helped me do that as well. Your discipline is probably the most important thing on the pitch. You’re no good on the bench.”

McMahon was actually on the B team which won last weekend’s training game. The quality of those clashes are the biggest indicator for him of how well the panel are moving. As he recalls, the margins between the teams were significantly larger during the league.

“It’s been a bit of a mix — the Bs wouldn’t be winning by much. That’s how you know if the intensity is good.

“If one team wins by much, then you know something’s wrong. That’s what was happening during the league — the As were giving the Bs a good hammering. The Bs got together and said they’ve got to increase this for themselves and to help the As as well. You can definitely notice a change in the intensity and scorelines are a lot tighter.”

Yet so few of the Bs have made the team named to start against Louth tomorrow, with 12 of the team that began last year’s All-Ireland final included.

McMahon counters: “The intensity of the Bs, just because there’s only three that didn’t start that are playing, it’s still huge.

“It’s so close in who you’re picking, I’m sure Pat has a headache about it. Even though there are only three of us who didn’t start in the final last year playing, there’s not that much in it, to be honest, in every position. It doesn’t reflect on the team-sheet how well the Bs are doing.”

McMahon admires the attitude of those who will fill the Dublin bench tomorrow. They’re not happy with their lot, he insists, but appreciate it’s for a greater good.

“If you go in thinking that you’re begrudging someone for being on the A team and you’re in the huffs about it, it’s not going to do you any good playing.

“You have to be thinking it’s just another game and you have to play your best. If you do that, think about your performance, you will get on that A team.”

McMahon’s living proof. Now it’s about making up for lost time.