By John Harrington

It's a sunny Tuesday afternoon, and Jack McCaffrey is giving off positive vibes. 

Sitting down with four reporters at AIB’s All-Ireland Senior Football Championship launch in Dublin city centre, he's bright, breezy, and making small-talk effortlessly.

McCaffrey is studying medicine in UCD and has a set of exams that count towards his final degree in a couple of weeks’ time, but if that’s a stressful proposition you wouldn’t think it by looking at him or talking to him. 

Surely combining the demands of a degree in medicine with those that go hand in hand with being a Dublin footballer is no easy thing? 

McCaffrey is having none of it. “No, it’s great,” he replies simply, and with the sort of sincerity you know isn’t faked.

The Dublin wing-back seems have a balanced perspective on life and where football should fit into it. He freely admits he was helped in that regard by the experience of opting out of Dublin’s 2016 championship campaign to instead travel to Ethiopia as an Ambassador for Goal from where he then travelled to Kenya, Zambia, Malawi, and Tanzania.

“I suppose there was a different perspective alright, looking in and seeing things (from afar) having some good friends involved and touching base with them,” he says. 

“It was just a matter of thinking what do I really enjoy doing when I got back and the answer is playing football at the highest level I can, and luckily Jim invited me back in and it's going well.”

The time away did more for him that just simply affirm his love for Gaelic Football, it gave him a healthier perspective on all aspects of life.

“Yeah, there was a lot in it,” he says. “I suppose it's just you're grateful that you're in a very lucky position. You can be a bit sheltered here.

“Football or study is your big priority and your forget there's more to life than a lot of these things. So it was quite humbling alright.

“At the same time you can't really come back with the thing that you have the weight of the world of your shoulders and not go back to enjoying yourself.

“It was a really good experience and it's probably given me the desire to go away again down the line when I'm old and grey and maybe go back and do a bit of stuff when I'm more capable of helping out.

“But in terms of what you take from it, just to count your blessings I suppose and be grateful for how lucky you are.”

The way he now views gaelic football, it should be something that gives balance to his life rather than something that tips the scales too much in one particular direction.

Some players never gain that sort of perspective, but it’s easier to develop in McCaffrey’s chosen field of medicine where you’re meeting people with far more difficult challenges to overcome than the task of managing your time between sport and study or work.

“You do definitely see some people who are in some really awful predicaments and they're staying quite positive and doing everything they can to get back to a good quality of life,” he says. 

“It's, again, quite humbling. Football is a release, but I don't think that's a revelation.

“Even going back to school and you're studying for exams, football was always a way to get out and clear the head.

“They complement each other at the moment. You need something outside of medicine to keep you sane and something outside of football to keep you sane so they go hand-in-hand.

“The intern year can be an intensive one depending on where you end up and what rotation you end up on but, look, there's countless people who've managed it, it's not too much of a hindrance.”

The ability to play under pressure is often held up as one of the most important traits of a top inter-county player. 

But pressure is only a creation of every individual’s psyche, so surely the trick is to not put yourself under pressure in the first place?

That seems to be McCaffrey’s approach. Every time he laces his boots up he regards it as an opportunity to enjoy, rather than endure or survive.

“The psychological stuff...I try and focus on just enjoying it, that's how I motivate myself,” he says. 

“Through trial and error I've found that being relaxed and limber going on the pitch is what works for me, other lads listen to hardcore rap and get in the zone for a day or two before but everyone's  experienced enough now to have found their own rhythm that works for them and you just respect that and get on with their own thing.”

Perhaps it helps that McCaffrey has never felt obligated to reach a certain standard as a Gaelic Footballer. 

His father Noel was an outstanding player himself, winning an All-Star in Dublin in 1988, but Jack was never aware of any expectation he would follow in those footsteps.

“There was never any pressure whatsoever," he says. "We're a family of four and my brother went off and lived in Australia for a year and had nothing to do with Gaelic football.

“My dad is very happy once everyone is happy. It was a huge advantage actually, to have a sounding board there and be able to bounce things off a man who's been through the mill.

“In terms of coaching he was always brutally honest with me. If I played well there was a pat on the back, if I wasn't there was a frank chat about it.

“But there's no pressure, we're all happy out doing our own thing. At the moment Niall is doing his Leaving Cert so he's the focal point of the parents and the rest of us are getting away with murder.”

One of the most popular narratives about this Dublin football team is the cut-throat competition for places in it and how that has driven their standards in recent years.

McCaffrey was Footballer of the Year in 2015, but after a year out he has returned to the set-up with no guarantees about his position in the team’s hierarchy.

John Small excelled in the half-back line in McCaffrey’s absence last year, and this year Eric Lowndes has impressed whenever he’s been given an opportunity.

So, the obvious question – now that he’s recovered from a hamstring strain, does Jack McCaffrey feel under pressure to win his place back in the team for the Championship?

By now you probably won't be surprised to hear he's not viewing the situation through that sort of prism.

“Playing for Dublin is a massive honour and huge privilege, it is something you should have to work hard for,” he says.

“There's never anyone going to walk back into that team and into a jersey and that makes you value it and fight for your place.

“The competition for places in the half-back line is high but it's the same around the rest of the pitch to be honest and I'm looking forward to going toe-to-toe during the summer.

“As it happens myself and John Small both picked up injuries so we've been training together and egging each other on. There'd be a bit of joking, nothing too serious.

“Myself, John and Eric (Lowdnes) all played minor together, myself and Smalley played together since we were 13 so it was great to see him flying last year.

“We'll just go at it and see what championship team comes together.”

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