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Jack McCaffrey has broken his silence on his explosive decision to walk away from the Dublin footballers this year.
he Footballer of the Year 2015 revealed that his best moment, last year’s stalemate Ireland final against Kerry when he scored 1-3 from the side, was the game “that broke me” once he realized I had to do it. all over again on one rep.
McCaffrey, a five-time All-Ireland and four-time All Star winner, left Dessie Farrell’s Dublin panel during the first block.
And in an exclusive interview for The Bernard Brogan Podcast On OTB Sports, the 27-year-old told his former Dublin teammate that he would have resigned sooner had it not been for the fact that Farrell, his underage former boss, took over this season.
His only appearance this season was as a substitute at halftime against Tyrone, during a league game in late February played in dire conditions at Healy Park, Omagh, and he was unable to finish the game due to injury.
“Coming back from that game, I hurt my hamstring, got on the bus, called a friend in New York, booked a flight to New York the next day, left the country and decided to quit soccer,” he revealed.
“That’s another thing I don’t want to say I’m doing because I really don’t like all this ‘retired’, probably because I’m a little younger. I don’t mean I’m retiring.
“Gaelic football is a hobby, it is something I love and no one would be happier than me if I woke up tomorrow and said, ‘I have a bit of enthusiasm, I want to play in Dublin again.’ It is not there at the moment.
“That doesn’t mean he won’t be there again. I’ll play for Clontarf until I’m about 47 years old!”
McCaffrey admitted that he had already started falling in love with inter-county play since the summer of 2019.
“I think what broke me was the final draw,” he added. “The preparation and everything for the game … it was quite good on a personal level, obviously we did not win but we did not lose, thank God.
“I was coming off the court, I thought there was overtime and David Moran just reached out to shake mine and I said, ‘We don’t have to do this again, do we?'”
McCaffrey didn’t even dare to go to practice the following week. Working as a doctor on Temple Street, he was in a clinic that Thursday and decided to work through the night instead of training with Dublin.
“It was a very specialized clinic and I exceeded the requirements,” he explained. “If I had said I had training at seven, they would have told me to go away, but I kept my mouth shut and stayed there until eight and missed training.
“I was like, ‘I can’t go there.’ I just showed up and told Jim [Gavin] They caught me late at a clinic and I didn’t train, then I went through the next week and luckily everything went well. “
However, despite Dublin completing the legendary five in a row, McCaffrey admits he was “so exhausted, and then I never got it back.”
When Farrell succeeded Jim Gavin, part of him still wanted to play for his former junior and under-21 coach.
“I think if Dessie hadn’t gotten involved, I would have pulled away sooner,” he suggested.
“Dessie has been an incredible influence on my football career since I was 12. Once she took over the job, I thought I could surely give her a year and a good chance and wouldn’t it be great to finish what we started all of that long ago? ?
“But something just wasn’t right, and it probably wasn’t right since the middle of summer last year when I felt like the fun was over and I didn’t really want to go train.
“I had spoken in interviews about the love I had for the group and that was always true, but suddenly it was no longer really due to the changes in my life compared to anywhere else.”
McCaffrey also dismissed recent rumors on social media that he was poised for a dramatic return to Dublin, even as his former colleagues close in on six in a row.
He didn’t know where the unfounded speculation had started.
“You may have been the first person to text me (about that),” he told Brogan, “and I got some: Dermo (Diarmuid Connolly) it was about me and a couple of people whose names I won’t mention who have vested interests were about me.
“Look, there was a closure and people have a lot of free time. I’d say someone thought it would be fun.
“There aren’t many people who have big, curly heads like me. So, I find it hard to believe that they really thought I was there. But no, there was no truth to that.”
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