Footballer of year looks to end stellar season with Rules win

“I probably did, you know, take the eye off the ball”, says Jack McCaffrey, and with that explaining why he is now footballer of the year. Because if 2015 was the perfect season – and he’s not done yet – McCaffrey puts part of it down to complacencies of the season before.

Any temptation to bask in Dublin’s All-Ireland success (he also has medical exams at UCD coming up) is overridden by the desire to build on a perfect season: McCaffrey will swap his Dublin jersey for an Ireland one for Saturday’s International Rules Test with Australia in Croke Park, with the aim of winning another honour – not forgetting his first All Star, either.

Surrendered

Yet he was in a very different place 12 months ago – Dublin surrendered their All-Ireland title in the semi-final stage (to Donegal), where McCaffrey was also substituted. Only now, reflecting back, does he understand the reasons why.

“I was thinking about it the other day,” he admits, speaking in Croke Park at the announcement of the new GAA/GPA All- Stars jersey in support of the Childhood Cancer Foundation. “And a bit of it was probably complacency, having had a good year in 2013, winning the All-Ireland.

“In the early rounds of the league, and even the early championship games, it was always ‘ah, there’s plenty of time, I’ll get in at some point’ . . . That set my season back a bit and when I did get into the team, our season abruptly ended. So there was no time to push on from there.”

Back to basics

Not that McCaffrey, just turned 22, ever questioned his ability: he simply realised that he and the rest of the team needed to get back to some basics.

“It was nothing in particular. Probably just getting in decent shape, firstly. But, other than that, it was about going back to what had made us successful in 2013, which was going out and enjoying playing football. Tackling and shoring up our defence was also something that we all might have looked at.

“But I wouldn’t say I questioned myself. Because you’re pretty much flat out training. You don’t really have time to sit down and over-think these things.

“I just set out this year to be in the best possible shape that I could be, playing as well as I could play. If I wasn’t picked when I was doing that, then fair enough. But, thankfully, I was picked. Jim Gavin and the rest of the management team are very fair. If you do have a dip in form, they’ll tell you exactly. While it is a big panel, they look at everyone equally so you always have a chance to get in.”

Now, with his first All Star in the bag (emulating his father, Noel, also an All Star centre back for Dublin in 1988), McCaffrey turns his attention to the Australians. He featured in the facile 2013 series, missed out last year. Saturday’s game, he says, is the chance wrap up the perfect season with a ribbon and bow.

He’s also content to continue his medical studies at UCD, despite the ever-increasing demands of the intercounty game: “I always thought the football and the study goes hand in hand with the training. It’s only when I found out recently that when you’re trying to celebrate and study, they are at odds a bit.

“But our pre-season occurs over Christmas and in January, when college is on break, and the summer time too, when the championship is on, again you’re on your holidays. So I would hope to continue to do everything . . . It’s healthy to have a hobby, something else that keeps you sane.”