Johnny Magee on Kilmacud Crokes: ‘The backlash towards us as a club was unwarranted, some of it was childish stuff’

Johnny Magee wants to talk about Niall Clancy. Well, he actually wants to talk about Theo Clancy but we’ll start with Niall. Because every story needs a beginning.

Magee is looking at an old photograph, it’s 1984 and Niall Clancy has just received a hero’s welcome back to Glenalbyn after helping Dublin win the All-Ireland minor football title.

The snap is a mess of kids gathered around the cup, all giddy smiles and raised arms. Out at the front of the cluster is a young Magee.

“That’s one of my first memories with Kilmacud,” says Magee, who would eventually captain and manage the club.

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“I’m beside one of my best mates, Robert Behan – Beano. I remember Niall Clancy bringing the cup back to the club all those years ago. And do you know who his son is?”

Theo Clancy will be Kilmacud’s full back in Sunday’s All-Ireland club semi-final.

This is how Magee sees his club. Different generations of families wearing the purple and gold. Old Friends. Trusted neighbours. He understands where the superclub tag comes from, but it doesn’t mean he has to accept it. He’ll show you a club with a soul, instead.

“Brian Sheehy has been fantastic at midfield this year. Brian’s mam was one of my teachers in St Laurence’s. There are strong family lines running through the club.

“A lot of negative stuff has been said and written about Kilmacud, but Shane Walsh is the only player who has not come through the academy or the underage system.

“People talk about Shane Horan playing for Offaly as if he was from outside the club, but Shane was down in the nursery when he was five or six years of age, he has played for Kilmacud since he was a kid. He joined Offaly under the parentage rule, but he’s born and bred Kilmacud.

“The success these players have achieved is a testament to the hours of work and dedication the coaches in the academy and at underage level have put in over the years.

“Like every club, it starts with the parents who bring their kids down to play, and then some of those parents help with the coaching. Those kids grow up and then bring their children to the club. The wheels keep turning.”

Crokes have won the All-Ireland club football title on three occasions – 1995, 2009 and 2023. Magee was captain in 2009.

He was also joint-manager with Robbie Brennan for three years and helped deliver a Dublin SFC in 2018 – which was Kilmacud’s first in eight seasons.

“One thing I love about the club is that there are certain standards and expectations of you that have to be maintained on and off the field, of what it is to be a Kilmacud player,” adds Magee.

“That was given to us as players by the 1995 squad and it continues to be passed on now by the likes of Rory O’Carroll and Shane Cunningham and Craig Dias.”

The fallout from last year’s All-Ireland final win over Glen dominated the conversation in the weeks after the club’s third Andy Merrigan triumph.

“In that moment it must have been very difficult for the players,” says Magee. “When you put so much on the line, when you sacrifice so much and a game ends like that, it’s very hard to think clearly because both sets of players know it’s such a long way to get back to that stage again.

“I felt the backlash towards us as a club was unwarranted, especially by a few high-profile people jumping on the bandwagon, some of it was childish stuff.

“In fairness to the lads in Crokes they held their counsel. To be honest, I did pretty well to hold my own counsel because I thought some of the stuff was nasty.”

But having managed most of these Kilmacud players, Magee is confident last year’s game won’t have clouded their preparations for Sunday’s rematch when the sides meet in an All-Ireland semi-final.

“It will add to the spice at the weekend no doubt, but I don’t think the lads will have referenced it.

“They’ll go about it in a professional manner, as will Malachy O’Rourke who is a very experienced manager. I’m sure he’ll be telling his lads to focus on the football because you never know if you’ll get another chance to be at this stage again.”