Every county player will agree with Jack McCaffrey about coming back to club training

It can be an awkward enough situation for inter-county players.

Obviously it shouldn't be, but when you're as genuine and as honest as Jack McCaffrey, showing up at club training after you've been away with the county for months can be a tough thing to do. In reality, your teammates are delighted to have you back. They know the hard work and effort the county lads have put into make it at that level because they've grown up with the exact same dream as you did. It's that one where you're after scoring a goal in Croke Park for your county and you're celebrating in front of a wild crowd. It's that one where you're climbing the steps of the Hogan Stand after winning with your county. The club players haven't succeeded on their dream but they've accepted that by now and they're just proud of you for making it. They know you're in better shape than they are and they know you're going to be some addition to this team when the club championship gets serious. But still, after all that, some county players do feel a little bit guilty coming back. Maybe it's pity. Pity on the lads because they've been training all winter not to have a competitive game during the summer. Jack McCaffrey says that even though his personality is the same in the Clontarf dressing room and he'd feel a little bit embarrassed about walking in there.

"Personality is always the same. I’m always embarrassed going back to Clontarf about how rarely I’m there and how little I give back to a club that has given me so much. It’s something I wish I could do a lot more of," he says.

When you're a full-time doctor in Drogheda and you're training with the Dublin senior footballers, you don't have an evening to spare, but McCaffrey would love to be down there, coaching the youngsters and showing face at senior training.

It goes to show the humility and the commitment that has brought this man to where he is today, and though he often gives off a happy-go-lucky image with his care-free demeanour, that's only because he's enjoying it, not because it's easy.

"There’s a lot of hard work that goes into getting onto the Dublin team, onto the starting XV and then performing. I’d never want to give the impression that anyone just turns up and just turns it on, because that doesn’t happen. There were very few fun moments coming back from the cruciate injury," he said "It was a slog. But what I always refer to like that, is when you’re out playing football with your friends, it’s the definition of fun. It’s literally what you would have done as a kid, hanging out. You go out and just kick a ball around. I think that’s something that we as a group have never really lost sight of, and are conscious of enjoying our time in Dublin jerseys."

That's a brilliant way to look at it. Jack McCaffrey of Dublin, was on hand to help launch the new PwC All Stars App and pick up his All-Ireland final man-of-the-match award. The event took place at PwC on Spencer Dock in Dublin.