A new era for Dublin GAA gets underway this weekend when an experimental team lines out under the management of Dessie Farrell for the first time.
The new boss will meet with members of the media as part of an AIG event on Friday and yesterday Jack McCaffrey was out and about as part of a media day with Denis O’Mahoney Toyota for whom he is a brand ambassador.
McCaffrey is about to embark on his own next chapter moving from Temple Street Children’s Hospital in Dublin where he has worked a six-month rotation since July, to St Luke’s in Kilkenny for the first half of this year.
He has a medical exam coming up later this month and that has meant missing out on the team holiday to Bali which many of the Dublin players are on at the moment but it’s just one of the sacrifices that he has had to make.
Noelle Healy from the Dublin Ladies Football team is on a similar path qualifying to become a medical professional, in her case an anaesthetist, and for her stint in Cork University Hospital, she elected to transfer temporarily from her Dublin club St Brigids to All Ireland Club Champions Mourneabbey in Cork.
McCaffrey will remain in Dublin with his club Clontarf and has yet to work out a full timetable of his Dublin training sessions with what he might be able to do himself down in the Marble City.
Having played with Dessie Farrell at U21 level we will surely have a major part to play in the new manager’s plans but that will come in time over the coming weeks and months.
If you didn’t hear it and have the time it is well worthwhile listening back to his interview on last nights Off The Ball where he spoke candidly about his life in the game and how if he was “still to be playing in ten years time he’d have absolutely no hamstrings left.”
Watch or listen back to Jack McCaffrey and Joe Molloy here