MATTERS AT A local level with Ballyboden consume the football focus of Michael Darragh MacAuley has rejected any suggestions he and his Dublin team-mates have returned to collective preparations for the 2020 championship.
The All-Ireland winning midfielder insists it is club rather than county which commands his attention at the moment.
Inter-county senior teams are permitted to return to training on 14 September ahead of the mid-October green light for the league resumption. Reigning champions Ballyboden are facing into a Dublin senior quarter-final tie this weekend.
“We’re not. We haven’t been involved at all, to be honest. Lads doing their own bits but we’re actually not involved. Everyone thinks we are training 24/7. We have secret underground layers that we meet up for kickarounds. No gossip. Or else if they are doing it, I am not getting told about it anyway.
“There was a while there during March-April, it was very hard to see us playing any ball again. I suppose to be kicking ball, what we’re doing at the moment, spectators or not, it is enjoyable. I went out to play a dead rubber game against Whitheall Colmcille last week and just went out to enjoy the game because I didn’t know when my next one was going to be. You just don’t know to be honest with you.”
When Dublin do assemble again, there will be a new addition to their coaching ticket in Brian O’Regan, a Ballyboden figure that MacAuley is well acquainted with.
“Brian is great. I would have played with Brian a long time ago. He has gone and managed me a number of times at this stage. I think he has really earned this opportunity because he has pretty much coached every team in the club.
“He has won championships with the women, with the hurlers, with ourselves. So, he is definitely not getting drafted in from nowhere. He is someone who has improved as a coach no end, to be honest.
“He has really upped his game. He 100% deserves a shot at Dublin. It is great to see him get the opportunity. He is hugely organised and he is going to bring a fresh voice and a new set of eyes to the whole thing will be nice.”
The halting of the 2020 season was inadvertently of help to MacAuley in getting rid of an injury complaint which hampered him throughout last winter as Ballyboden journeyed deep into the club championships.
“I was coming back from an operation. I missed the start of the Dublin thing, I was away. I think it kind of fell nicely for me. Every single player when they are coming back from a serious injury they always come back a session or two too quickly.
“I didn’t even get the opportunity to do that. I had no target as such I suppose to work on. I got an extra couple of weeks, nearly couple of months of rehab which was great. I got myself in great shape, and the injury in great shape.
“I think it was nice for that. As I said, the whole dipping in and out, it is nice to have one focus. Actually give the club your proper attention and see what comes of it.
“We are managing pretty well at the moment. I think we are getting the club championships off very successfully with a very low number of cases. That is great. I think it is a nice position for the players to be in.
“We aren’t getting weighed down with All-Ireland finals or championship in general. Lads are just working their ass off playing with the clubs. Then come what may be it in September or October. It is a nice way to look at it. It is just nice that this is it with the club. Inter-county at the moment is pretty irrelevant to us.”
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Michael Darragh MacAuley will be featuring in AIB’s ‘The Toughest Summer’, the 50-minute documentary which will air on RTÉ One on Tuesday 25 August at 10.10pm.
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