Dublin's Jack McCaffrey falls in love with football again

The only thing missing from Jack McCaffrey’s illustrious 2015 season was a Dublin senior championship. Everything else fell into place. League, Leinster, and All-Ireland honours preceded All-Star and footballer of the year accolades. He should have been at the top of the world. But he wasn’t.

“I went off to Thailand with a few of my friends around Christmas time of 2015 and came back at the start of 2016 and thought that it would just take me a while to get back into it. But it quickly became apparent that I wasn’t enjoying it as much as I’m used to, and as I am now.”

Was it because he had won almost everything? “I don’t know, is the answer to that question. That definitely wasn’t in my thinking. You’ve won a lot — that’s not my principal motivation. I play football because I really enjoy it and I’ve made some of my best friends through it and I love being around them and having the craic. But I don’t think the success that led up to it was a factor in it.”