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Joe McMahon ready to go again with Tyrone

Joe McMahon

Joe McMahon

When Joe McMahon briefly abandoned his sweeping duties and cruised up the pitch to kick a sweet point in the early stages of Tyrone’s All-Ireland quarter-final win over Monaghan last August, it might well have been his final act as an inter-county player.

Just as he struck the ball he felt an all-too-familiar searing pain in his groin, and he knew that was the end of his game, and most likely his season.

His younger brother, Justin, replaced him as the pivot in the Red Hands’ defence after eight minutes, and when he assessed things afterwards the damage a torn groin muscle.

Tyrone won a game that will now be remembered for an incident involving Darren Hughes and Tiarnan McCann to set up a semi-final against Kerry two weeks later.

In a desperate bid to make the game, Joe McMahon travelled to England to have the torn muscle sewn back together, but the “quick-fix” solution didn’t work and he had to concede defeat.

In the days and weeks after, the 33-year-old teacher wondered if it was also the end of a 12-year career with Tyrone, which yielded All-Ireland wins in 2005 and 2008. 

“It was an expensive point from my point of view” McMahon jokes. “In the off-season, I was thinking about where I was at and taking a lot of confidence from the team that went out against Kerry and maybe had opportunities to go out and win the game.

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“I think personally I would like to give it another go because of the way it ended and hopefully come back in or around April time and go at it again when the ground is a wee bit flatter.”

Without their most experienced squad member and the key player in a defensive system, Tyrone were beaten by Kerry by 0-18 to 1-11.

Joe McMahon Injured

Joe McMahon Injured

 

However, it was yet another fine display from a young Tyrone side had assumed would struggle to be competitive through a transitional period.

McMahon’s own Tyrone St Enda’s club-mate Conor Meyler and centre-forward Mark Bradley were just two of the young players Mickey Harte had drafted in from an All-Ireland winning U21 side to devastating effect.

He sees clear parallels between the current side Harte is building and the one that famously dominated the 2000s on the back of All-Ireland U21 final wins in 2001 and 2002.

“They’re going well, I think with the more games the more experience they will gain and situations within games,” he says of the latest crop.

“Certainly last year, confidence-wise will help a lot of them and filter down and with the U21s as well, how they have come along and did so well with winning the All-Ireland there, I don’t think much would faze them and certainly Mickey (Harte) has been in this transition period before.

“In 2002/2003 he had that young team coming up through winning underage titles and you can sort of see the team and the players that previously won, there are trends there set from before.

“I mean the confidence is there, the ability is there skill-wise and the application is there. 

“They certainly have the potential to go on over the next number of years and maybe win another All-Ireland again. But, as I said before, the confidence from winning before will help that along.”

While the prospect of linking up with all that talent again this year is undeniably part of his reasoning for coming back for more when most of his team-mates from the 2005 and 2008 All-Ireland wins have retired, he also admits that he would struggle to even consider life after inter-county football.

“On a personal level the way it ended I wanted to give it another go. Playing at this level, I’ve been playing for Tyrone since 2004 and I have known nothing else really and maybe minor and U21 minor,” he adds.

“It’s a bit like a drug and an addict, it’s hard to let it go. It will be difficult when that time does come but for now I’ll attack it and go again.

“Boys have retired in the past and you talk about the golden generation of boys but anytime I did talk to them they say initially it was a hard decision to come to.

“And championship time was always the difficult one because they have been there and know the buzz and it would be hard to let go of that. Hopefully I’ll get the buzz again.”

As for the litany of injuries he has been through during his career, McMahon will deal with the consequences when he finally does decide to walk away.

“When you look at other players maybe (Brian) Dooher and that you hear stories of operations down the line. I don’t think about it too much I’ll cross that bridge when I come to it. If you see me in a wheelchair you’ll help me out.”

For now, McMahon is back in training, kicking a ball and running, after a lengthy rehab and is targeting an April return with Tyrone.

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Tyrone footballer Joe McMahon, who is a member of the Omagh St Enda's club, was speaking at the launch of Lá na gClubanna 2016 in Croke Park on Thursday. For more information on the initiative, click here.