There was something cruel and slightly unusual about the Dublin footballers facing a full round of club championship games, just seven days after their back-to-back All-Ireland titles, although Philly McMahon doesn't appear bothered in the slightest.
It helps that McMahon is one of the few teetotallers on the Dublin team, so there was certainly no hangover as he helped his club Ballymun Kickhams defeat St Brigid’s. McMahon is one of those players who prefers not to look back but rather forward, though he certainly doesn’t take anything for granted.
That includes his place on the Dublin team. The now four-time All-Ireland-winning defender is already looking ahead to potential changes in the Dublin team for 2017. That includes the possible return of full back Rory O’Carroll who having opted out this season.
“I don’t know if he’ll be back,” says McMahon, who added the only contact he’s had with O’Carroll in recent weeks was a text message, from a foreign mobile, wishing him well for the All-Ireland final.
“Definitely, he’s a massive player for the team, but that’s up to Jim [Gavin], and it’s up to Rory as well, what he wants to do. He left on good terms . . .so it will definitely be a benefit to have him back on the team.
“But it’s each to their own, I suppose. I wouldn’t for one minute think about missing a year of football. I missed a year of football already from being dropped. It was out of my hands, but I’ve experienced not playing a year of football. It’s probably the worst feeling in the world when you get that phone call to say ‘you are not in the plans this year’.
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“Then you have to talk to your family members and your friends and you are thinking ‘Jesus I have to tell the story again’. Then your ego kind of takes over and you are kind of thinking to yourself ‘is this really my fault?’ In a nutshell it is, but you need to make your manager want you as a player.
“But in terms of Rory, you have to respect what his decision was because he’s that type of person, if he wants to go and do something he’ll do it.”
For McMahon, speaking at the launch of the Ireland Active Conference White Flag awards, there is still plenty of room for shake-up in the Dublin defence, or indeed throughout the team, come 2017.
"Well, definitely in the full-back line, you have Shane Clayton from Ballyboden who's a very good player. You've got experienced players as well – the likes of Darren Daly, keeping you on your toes, who can definitely do a job in the full-back line.
“It’s funny because you look at the changing room after the final, and we’re all celebrating. You’re looking around the room and you’re saying ’. People will retire; you’ll have players coming in. People with injuries. You look at Jack McCaffrey and Rory – they went off and did their own thing in terms of what they needed to do.
“So, you just don’t know what’s going to change, what’s going to happen. I can’t see any of the players at this stage, going away. And if I left the Dublin panel and the team won an All-Ireland then that’s one All-Ireland I missed out on, isn’t it? So that’s why you stay so grounded and you take every minute as you can.
“I’m only 29. I’m lucky I don’t really get much injuries. Any injuries I got have all been contact injuries. I look after myself. I don’t drink. So I’m hoping that will be a massive benefit to prolong my career.
“I want to play as long as I can. The day I don’t enjoy it, similar to most players, is the day they should give someone else a chance. That’s what I believe in anyway.”
"And it felt a little bit better this year, for some reason, I don't know why. Maybe because of all the talk about doing back-to-back. Especially then having the replay with Mayo. We didn't really speak about it that much because I suppose in every changing room after winning an All-Ireland . . the elephant in the room, is winning the back-to-back."
McMahon also enjoyed avoiding any controversy.
“If you were to say to me at the start of the year, ‘You’re going to mark [Donie] Kingston, [John] Heslin, [Mickey] Newman, [Michael] Murphy, [Kieran] Donaghy and [Aidan] O’Shea and you’re not going to be in the headlines for whatever reason’, you’d probably laugh at that. So, yeah, it’s nice not to have any of that.
“I don’t really let it affect me but at the same time it’s all about football, isn’t it?”
