“And he was a good man for a few fags.”
Darran O’Sullivan reveals which ex-Kerry teammate made the seamless comeback into the county scene that Jack McCaffrey is currently doing.
McCaffrey retired from the Dublin set-up in 2019, having played a crucial role in the all-conquering squad that dominated Gaelic football for almost a decade.
Since his departure, and the retirement of several other key players, the Dubs have now went two years since their last All-Ireland win, something which is considered a drought in the capital.
However, the flying wing back has made his return to the game, and in the last two matches came off the bench to make instant impact that helped his team get over the line.
The demands of inter-county football suggest that you couldn’t just walk away and seamlessly come back into it, but the Clontarf man is debunking that myth.
Speaking on the latest episode of the GAA Hour, Darran O’Sullivan reveals that a Kerryman already did that, and was equally, if not more impressive in doing so.
“Mike McCarthy did it, he came back in ’09. He was a full back for a number of years and had gone for two or three years, and came back and was the fittest man in the team.
“And he was a good man for a few fags.
“I remember just going ‘my God this man is a machine’ and he was a Roll’s Royce, sure the quarter final against Dublin (in 2009) when we were just stuttering through at first, he bounced straight through the middle and set up Gooch for the goal and bang, we’re well on our way.
“He’s the only player that I know of to do that (return to county after a long retirement break), I think he was playing a lot of soccer at the time, but he went away as a full back and came back as a centre back and just cruised through games, created scores and dominated forwards.
“He was a very different player to Jack, Jack’s just explosive, power, but Mike was different – he went away, came back, and it was actually quite depressing, I mean he’s been away for a couple of years, comes back and is just cruising through runs.
“You were just going ‘what’s going on here?'”
Mike McCarthy had originally retired in 2006 following an impressive All-Ireland final performance against Mayo where he did a man-marking job on Conor Mortimer.
In 2009, after Kerry had lost their crown to Tyrone the previous summer, the evergreen defender returned, and as they say, the rest is history.
You can listen to the full episode of the GAA Hour right here: McStay ball TM, Tyrone missing Mickey Harte and why forwards should just take on their man
Related links:
- Darran O’Sullivan thinks Kerry have far bigger concerns than just fitness
- Dessie Farrell reveals why Paul Mannion and Jack McCaffrey returned to Dublin
- Peter Canavan: “The Tyrone support has been very poor”
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