McCaffrey relishes perfect recovery after darkest hour
It’s too early to say if this latest All-Ireland triumph is the most cherished of the four Jack McCaffrey has won — how can anything beat your first? — but the summer of 2018 has clearly made a persuasive bid for his affections.
Named man of the match for his powerful performance against Tyrone on Sunday, it is an achievement that stands as the perfect counterpoint to his personal torment 12 months earlier, when a cruciate ligament injury ended participation in the decider against Mayo inside 10 minutes.
It took him nine months to make it back. Nine months of rehab and at a time when he was completing his final year as a medical student. He admitted earlier this year that it was the toughest thing he had ever done in sport. That it had taken him “to a dark place”.
It wasn’t until early June that he was seen again in Dublin colours, for a Leinster semi-final against Longford. A substitute again against Laois in the provincial final, his progress and input since has been sensational.
Only Ciáran Kilkenny is ahead of him in the race to be footballer of the year.
I haven’t yet taken a step back and looked at it in the context of the season quite yet, but from my point of view, personally, it’s incredibly satisfying to transition from watching in the stands throughout the league and early parts of the championship to being down on the field.
McCaffrey’s trademark explosiveness with ball in hand was on display at the weekend, but it was a late
dispossession made on Tyrone captain Mattie Donnelly that gave most pleasure to a player who felt his defensive abilities weren’t always appreciated.
There were times in the past when he would hear opposing attackers urging their teammates to target him and he knew himself that his tackling had to improve. He won’t profess to be a Johnny Cooper or a Philly McMahon in that regard, now, but he’s thrilled with his progress.
“To be able to invite that on and then turn them over is great. Similar with kickouts or whatever, I’d probably be targeted a bit, but I’m holding my own this year. I’ve been around five or six years, at this point. It’s not enough to just want to keep playing to your strengths.”
Other boxes have been ticked, too.
Last Sunday was the first time that he finished a senior All-Ireland and he made sure to pause for a moment when the clock reached the point where he had come a cropper last year and remind himself that he was now in bonus territory.
Not that perspective was in any short supply.
McCaffrey’s work with the paediatric team at Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in Drogheda has exposed him to some of the trials and tribulations experienced by families and he has witnessed similar suffering through his involvement with the Dubs.
A handful of them took the time to visit a terminally-ill 18-year-old supporter early last week and, though pretty much everyone on the squad has done their bit for charity and other causes time and again, there was nonetheless a resonance to the occasion.
“To know that he is going to be sitting there with a Dublin jersey on, cheering you on, rather than diminishing what football is because of how trivial it is, it just makes you appreciate it so much, the release it gives people, the joy that people get from watching us play football. It’s kind of mind-blowing, when you sit down and think about it.”
McCaffrey spoke about humility when sharing that story and it is something that this team has always demonstrated throughout a remarkable period of dominance that has brought such joy to their own and such fears to others.
He sees the argument about the inflated levels of funding the GAA has handed over to Dublin this last decade or so. He even agrees there is something in it. It’s not at all a debate that insults him, even if he tweaks the terms of engagement.
Like so many in the capital, McCaffrey points to the work done by volunteers, his own father among them, and he made reference to to a squad of players, “a really special group of people”, who are determined to keep on making hay while the sun is shining.
There are so many arguments out there about Dublin football and the stuff we have done and the last couple of years with funding, but I would challenge anyone to take a look at our group and have a cut off us. When we cross the white line, we’ll kill you. No two ways about it.
It’s impossible to doubt it.
The Clontarf man is still only 24 and, yet, his days of being the exuberant kid bouncing around the room and injecting energy into the group are past. Now, he finds himself stroking his chin and talking about the wave that delivered Brian Fenton, Eoin Murchan and Niall Scully.
It definitely drives us on and hopefully it will continue.
As will he. Medicine isn’t the most conducive of careers for a top inter-county footballer, but McCaffrey has
discovered parallels between such two very different worlds, most notably in the manner in which teams work so closely over a long period of time.
He is hopeful he can make it all work.
“There is a very similar culture to what you find in a dressing-room, in my experience, and everyone covers each other and helps each other, so, as long as I want to play football, it will be catered for and people will have your back, which is something I really appreciate.”
Yet another reason to be thankful.
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