Justin McMahon – right place, right time

By Niall McCoy

IT’S the days leading up to the 2008 All-Ireland final between Tyrone and Kerry and Justin McMahon is travelling home from training with his older brother Joe.

They pull up to their house in Ashbourne out on the Dromore Road and take in their surroundings.

There is red and white bunting everywhere while a couple of banners hang around the place. Final fever is in full swing.

One banner reads ‘Ashbourne’s Twin Towers’ – referring to the Omagh brothers.

Joe turns to his younger brother and laughs: ‘they must know something we don’t.’

Justin looks back quizzically and asks ‘what do you mean?’ Joe replies ‘I might be in alongside you on Sunday.’

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Paddy McMahon was a Tyrone player back in the 1970s and picked up an Ulster title in ’73. He came on in the All-Ireland semi-final loss to Cork at Croke Park.

That past, and the fact that there were five boys in the house, meant that football was always going to be a mainstay in the McMahon abode.

“I had my younger brother Eamon, then Conor, myself, Joe and the older brother Patrick. Then my sister Marian,” said Justin McMahon.

“The fellas, we all played football for St Enda’s. We were at different age-groups obviously, but then we all came together at reserve and senior.

“We just loved getting out and playing about the street and the park.

“There were great men at the club who were big influences on us. I know for myself, the likes of Eugene (McMahon), Mickey O’Neill really drove it on. Then with the school Liam Grugan, Ciaran McBride, Noel Donnelly and men like that.

“They were great football men who would have really encouraged you. We were very well supported moving right up through the club.”

By the time the 2003 season came around, the St Enda’s coaches knew that they had something special in the rangy player.

That year would be the most famous in the history of Tyrone football as the Red Hand county final got to experience the euphoria of an All-Ireland victory. It would also be the year when McMahon started to really come to people’s attention.

While the seniors were setting off on their famous journey, the minors were enjoying their own adventure.

McMahon didn’t feature in the drawn match with Derry or the replay, but he came off the bench in the semi-final encounter with Cavan that also finished all square. He had had earned a starting spot by the time the replay came about while he lined out in midfield for the Ulster final win over Fermanagh.

In the middle of that he also made his championship debut for Omagh when Paddy Quinn introduced him off the bench for the latter stages of their 2-11 to 2-7 championship defeat to Dungannon. Older brother Joe was sent off three minutes from time to complete a bad day for the family.

“I played in the Cavan replay, maybe half-back, and then I played the rest of the season,” McMahon said of that 2003 Ulster Minor triumph.

“We played Fermanagh in the final, they had a really good team at the time.

“They had a couple of the St Michael’s boys that would have played in a Hogan final around then (the 2002 defeat to St Jarlath’s, Tuam). They had a great centre-back (Conor Foy).

“It was Ryan Keenan’s year when they got to the Hogan final and I think Foy was still fifth year.

“If I recall they got off to an unbelievable start. They hit the crossbar.

“We had come through a tough side – Derry, the reigning champions, then the Cavan matches. We were just fortunate that ‘Daisy’ (Damien McDermott) was the stand-out player at that time.

“He had been unreal and got us over the line in those games and he scored a few goals against Fermanagh too.

“It was the first time they had the Qualifiers at that level. We played Laois in the quarter-final. They were the beaten Leinster finalists.

“They beat us down in Longford by a couple of points and went on to win the All-Ireland. They had some great players, Donnie Brennan and players like that.”

The following year older brother Joe was drafted into the senior panel by Mickey Harte and made his debut in the 2004 Dr McKenna Cup final against Donegal. Incidentally it would be Harte’s first win in the competition. Eleven more titles have followed since.

McMahon was playing tag with his older brother, chasing him on his path through the Red Hand ranks.

The pair would play key roles as Omagh came so close to ending a 17-year wait for an O’Neill Cup in 2005, only to be pipped at the post by Carrickmore in a scrappy final at Healy Park.

The 1-6 to 1-5 loss not only robbed McMahon of a county title, but also the opportunity to climb the steps and raise a cup aloft in front of his teammates.

A year later he would get the chance to do so as Tyrone won the Ulster U-21 Championship – but that owed more to fortune (or misfortune in the case of Michael Murphy) than anything else.

“It was pure luck,” said McMahon. “Our captain Michael Murphy, who was a great player, got injured before the final with Derry.

“I came in as captain that day. We played them up in Ballybofey and it was a good game. We just about got over the line.”

That set up an All-Ireland semi-final against Mayo and this time Tyrone would come out on the wrong side of a tight result – and cruelly McMahon would be left feeling at fault despite a Man of the Match performance.

“Mayo beat us after extra-time, it would have been Keith Higgins and big Barry Moran and boys like that.

“We had a very good team too, the likes of Niall Kerr, Micky Murphy, Stephen McNulty, Marty Murray, PJ Quinn and ‘Daisy’.

“I had a free-kick at the end to draw it and I just put it to the left.

“As true as God, I had the kick and then the whistle went and a fella came on the pitch to give me the Man of the Match award. Literally two minutes after missing that free-kick.

“I remember looking at him and going ‘are you serious?’

“I was young, I didn’t know what to do. Someone came in and took a snap and if I could see that photograph, I doubt I’d look best pleased.

“The award was totally irrelevant given the result. It was just devastation.

“Mayo went on and won it against Cork and it just showed we were good enough to win it.

“We had played that Cork team a few weeks prior in a challenge and I think it was a draw or we won by a point. We knew we were good enough.”

Those were busy years for the versatile player. As well as club and county duty, he was also part of a St Mary’s Sigerson side that, looking back, he feels really underachieved.

“There were a couple of years when we were very close with Paddy (Tally) leading the way.

“We had some quality players. First years were allowed to play when I was there, although that has changed since.

“In my first year we had players like Ronan Clarke, and you were near in awe of players like him. Dan Gordon was there too, Mark Donnelly, Leo Meenan. You had Mickey McIver from Derry.

“You looked around and you were always thinking ‘we have a hell of a team here’ but we just fell short for a couple of years.

“It was disappointing. It just seemed to be games lost after extra-time or just by a point here or there. That’s the nature of it.

“It was great to see the boy getting over the line a few years ago. It was just fantastic when you consider what they’re up against.”

McMahon may not have tasted success at college level, but he certainly enhanced his reputation further.

He once again followed his brother’s path by playing with the ‘Ranch’, and they lined out together in the Sigerson, and it was no shock to see him follow Joe’s path once more by joining Mickey Harte’s panel.

The player isn’t exactly sure how the approach came about, but he does think long-serving kitman Mickey Moynagh was involved.

When his older brother Joe retired in May 2017, he thanked Moynagh for his friendship, and he is a man hugely respected by Red Hand players down through the years,

“You had Mickey Moynagh there at the time and he was a big part of the backroom team,” Justin McMahon continued.

“I think Mickey gave me a phonecall to say there was a trial on.

“I went down to play in a few of them but there happened to be one of them – Christ, I got the phonecall when I wasn’t expecting it.

“I had been out the night before. They were playing an Ulster select, they must have been getting ready for the Railway Cup, and I had to grab the bag and tear down the road.

“I played in that game and from the start I was just wondering how I was going to get through it having been out the night before.

“I think it was those trials around 2006, 2007 that got me the opportunity to join up with the squad for the McKenna Cup.”

McMahon’s Tyrone debut came in the 2007 National League when he marked Fermanagh’s Eamon Maguire in a 0-14 to 0-8 win at Healy Park. That week’s Tyrone Herald gave him a mark of 7.5 out of 10 with only Colm Cavanagh earning higher.

It was a more than solid debut, and the player feels that having Joe already in the changing room did allow him to settle in that little bit quicker.

“It was an advantage, definitely, having a brother there.

“He was able to give me a heads up on what to expect on things like the pace of the game.

“It was more the mental preparation he helped me with. He’d tell me ‘this is far quicker than you’re used to. You’re going to have to be sharper on the ball.’

“In that way it certainly helped. I was lucky too that I knew a couple of lads coming through at the same time.

“Still though, you’re going into a changing room with a team that has won two All-Irelands. They were just fantastic players, fantastic names and great fellas as well.

“You were showing them a lot of respect but as you get in there, you want to go for it. You want to fight and get the opportunity to play.”

It didn’t take long for that opportunity to arrive as he was named as one of four debutants for the Ulster opener against Fermanagh in May 2007 alongside Cavanagh, Niall Gormley and Tommy McGuigan.

Unfortunately a late injury saw McMahon miss out with Philip Jordan drafted in to replace him. McMahon was due to pick up Maguire again having quelled his threat in their league meeting three months earlier.

His absence was felt as Maguire gave Jordan a tough time, particularly in the first half, and it took a Gerard Cavlan free-kick deep into additional time to sneak the Red Hands through.

McMahon missed the semi-final trouncing of Donegal but his championship debut finally arrived from the bench as Harte’s side secured a first Anglo Celt title since 2003 with a 1-15 to 1-13 win over Monaghan at Clones.

“I do count myself very lucky to have come in at that time,” he said.

“I had taken a year out not long before that and it was great. I was working locally in a couple of jobs like the cash and carry and the cinema.

“Life was great and you were playing football. We had a great run with the club in ’05 and that led into the u-21s and then the seniors.

“From that period from ’05 leading up to ’08 I was very lucky, things were going well for me.

“To come into that environment where boys have won things at the top level, that was just a great experience.

“I would always think it was a case of being in the right place at the right time with those boys.

“I would look at them and say that they were without doubt far superior footballers and I was just lucky to be playing alongside them.”

McMahon missed the All-Ireland quarter-final against Meath as a bit of Graham Geraghty magic earned the Royals a shock win, but by the time the 2008 Ulster Championship had rolled around he had firmly established himself in the side.

He made two substitute appearances in the first three National League games as Tyrone lost twice and drew once.

He started the next three though and their form improved with wins over Laois and Donegal.

It was a mixed league campaign for Harte’s side, but they had maintained their Division One spot and a home opener against third division Down seemed the perfect way to get into the championship rhythm.

All was going to plan when goals from Colm McCullagh and Sean Cavanagh had the side seven points up after just 17 minutes in Omagh,

From there things started to go wrong. A late Paul McComiskey free earned a replay and on a Saturday night when Páirc Esler was rocking, the Mourne county claimed a memorable 1-19 to 0-21 success after extra-time.

Tyrone’s All-Ireland ambitions were already on rocky grounds but far from feeling despondent, McMahon found the defeat easy to deal with.

“You know what, Down had some team and were fully deserving of the win,” he said. “We played them again in 2010 and they went on to the All-Ireland final and were very unlucky to lose it.

“They were two fantastic games that maybe didn’t get the credit they deserved, especially the replay.

“We were going well and were in control and Down then managed to turn it around in extra-time.

“They had serious players up front like Danny Hughes, Benny Coulter, McComiskey was coming on at the time and was dangerous.

“You were gutted coming off the field because you wanted to go Route One and win an Ulster title.

“That week though, after reflecting on it, our takeaway was more about it being some game and that we couldn’t be that far away. The feeling was that it would be a shame to go into the Qualifiers not being confident after being involved in games like that.

“Mickey spotted that too. He saw that the team could still get to the business end of things. He spotted that really early.

“The Down match was reviewed. It was reflected on. We had a couple of meetings and we entered the Qualifiers with a serious mindset.

“Training really kicked on after those meetings and I think the Tyrone Championship, the first round anyway, may have been on because I remember drawing with Dromore. After that the focus turned to the Qualifiers.”

The team and management may have got over the Down defeat, but the first few Qualifier matches did little to ease fears that they were struggling.

They showed well in the first half of their clash with Louth and led 1-10 to 1-0 at the break, but failed to really push on in the second half.

Westmeath were next up and despite being down to 13 players, the Leinster men nearly caused a massive shock but Dessie Dolan screwed a golden goal opportunity wide of John Devine’s post late on.

Nerves were frayed in the next round too as they edged out Mayo by a point, and that set up a quarter-final clash with All-Ireland favourites Dublin.

It was in the rain against the Dubs when Tyrone finally found their mojo. Dublin, who were 2/5 shots pre-game, were not only beaten, they were destroyed. Sean Cavanagh, Davy Harte and Joe McMahon all hit the net as a stunned Croke Park watched Tyrone power to a 3-14 to 1-8 win. Stunned Dublin fans watched their All-Ireland hopes evaporate for another year. Stunned Tyrone fans were left wondering where the performance had come from.

“Funnily enough, that Dublin game was probably our best performance since the Down defeat,” McMahon said.

“Jesus, nobody give us a chance in that quarter-final – nobody.

“We took a siege mentality into that game. Mickey brought that to our attention.

“Before the game he used that sort of language, told us that we didn’t have a hope apparently. Everyone was writing you off even though the room is full of All-Ireland winners.

“Dublin had been knocking on the door at that time but with that mentality we were definitely motivated to make a big impact. Everything clicked.

“I have to give credit to the squad that year, everyone was just busting themselves. Lads weren’t getting on and they were away doing extra sessions anyway.

“We were probably ahead of the time. I’m not sure many other teams were doing that. It created an environment where you had to work your complete socks off to stay in.

“It also meant that we had great lads making an impact off the bench, and that was a huge help.

“We knew after the Dublin game that it was in us to go forward.”

Go forward they did, although the circumstances were essentially reversed for their semi-final meeting with Wexford.

Dublin were 2/5 in the quarter-final and now Tyrone were 2/5 shots against the Model county.

Six points ultimately separated the sides but it wasn’t a six-point game, and McMahon pointed to the early removal of Mattie Forde, who had tortured Armagh’s Francie Bellew in the previous round, as being pivotal.

“There were a couple of things that went for us that day,” he said.

“You wouldn’t wish it on any team but in the first half Mattie Forde got injured. I don’t know if he was carrying an injury into the game or what the news was in Wexford, but he had to go off.

“He was a serious loss for that team. I think Conor Gormley was on him but he would have attracted a number of players to him.

“They started well but then we got a good patch prior to half-time.

“We looked good but they got a goal in the second half and it was game on, but we responded well and tagged on a few points.

“If Mattie Forde had played the whole game then it would have been a lot closer.”

That set up another chapter in the Tyrone and Kerry rivalry, one that had been one-sided in Harte’s time in charge.

The Red Hands had won the 2003 semi-final and the ’05 final, and the men from the Kingdom were keen to strike back.

Their hopes were pinned on their ‘Twin Towers’ – Kieran Donaghy and Tommy Walsh – who both clocked in at six foot, five inches.

The pair had dovetailed beautifully and decimated full-back lines who had no way of dealing with their aerial prowess and finishing quality.

What would Tyrone do? Nothing special if Harte was to be believed.

“I don’t think either team will produce any major element of surprise,” he said before the game. In truth, the game was afoot.

When Harte gambles on the football field he usually collects the winnings.

Think 2003 when he took Peter Canavan off and back on in the maiden Sam Maguire success against Armagh.

The same trick worked again in the ’05 final win while even in the run-up to the ’08 final there was a surprise as Stephen O’Neill came out of retirement three weeks before the final after the panel approved his return.

But there would be one more trick up Harte’s sleeve to deal with the ‘Twin Towers.’

Joe McMahon had come back into the first 15 as the season had progressed, but he floated between midfield and half-forward while he even had a few spells at full-forward.

Now, in a move that nobody could have predicted, he would join his younger brother Justin in a two-man full-back line – Joe on Walsh, Justin picking up Donaghy.

“We went away and were playing in-house games, boys were just at each other,” Justin McMahon said.

“Fergal McCann was in at the time and he was first class then you had Mickey and Tony Donnelly. They had us really well prepared.

“In some of the drills we would have been using big men inside, I would have been marking Sean (Cavanagh) or maybe even John Devine.

“I didn’t have a clue about Joey going in until a few days before, that’s being totally honest.

“After the Thursday night he must have known. We were pulling back to the house after training and the bunting was up and some banners.

“This was before the team was named and someone had one up that said ‘Ashbourne’s Twin Towers’.

“Joey looked at me laughing. He knew, I didn’t. He started laughing and said ‘they must know something we don’t.’

“I said ‘what do you mean? And he goes ‘I might be in alongside you on Sunday.’

“It was Gourley who missed out and he had been brilliant. It was so unfortunate for him and I’m sure any man getting that news can only be disappointed.

“Ciaran being Ciaran he just got on with it, he is a fantastic player and a fantastic person. He’s still playing and getting plenty of success with the Rock.”

The tension had built long before the ball was thrown in and this just was another spark. Croke Park was a tinderbox waiting to go off.

One of the most famous images from that day was Joe McMahon screaming in the face of Walsh after turning him over in the fourth minute.

It didn’t help Tyrone’s image at the time, and the elder sibling could have little complaint about the scorn that followed – but this Tyrone team was pumped to the extreme to end Kerry’s three in-a-row bid.

His younger brother feels that the verbal outburst was not some tactic to put off the Kingdom attacker, but a year of ups and downs manifesting into a moment of release.

“Personally I was looking at Kieran and at his movement and how he was using his body, particularly with his basketball experience.

“You were looking at how he used his body and how you could avoid giving away any silly frees.

“It wasn’t a whole shouting and roaring match from my perspective.

“Joey can speak for himself I’m sure, but I think more or less his reaction was letting out the tension. That was him sorted but he just had to do it in bloody public!”

Once again, Harte’s gamble paid off and Tyrone claimed their third All-Ireland, and McMahon’s first.

Between them, Walsh and Donaghy managed only a solitary point and often had to roam further out the field to try and get their hands on the ball.

McMahon had performed brilliantly and would have been in the running for Man of the Match but Sean Cavanagh’s five points from play ensured that it was a one-horse race.

The player preferred to look elsewhere for reasons why the inside forwards struggled.

“If I’m being honest a lot of it was to do with Donaghy’s service,” he said.

“He needed quality ball and we had done a lot of work on pressure out the field to hurt that ball quality.

“Also if the ball did come in, we worked on having the likes of Philly Jordan or Davy Harte coming onto the break.

“We worked on breaking it a certain way, pushing it away from danger, so we knew what we were likely to face.

“They hadn’t changed script throughout the season so why would they for the final if it was working so well?

“The quality of the ball in the previous games was unbelievable, nobody could mark that.

“That day in Croke Park was different. The ball coming in was maybe just a touch shorter and we were able to get out in front or get the hand in, work the spaces better.

“We were lucky in that respect and, in truth, we did ride our luck a number of times during that game.

“I remember in the second half a ball came in and I completely lost it in the air and Gormley had lost it too. It was more my fault, he thought I was going to get it but I mucked it up and it went over both our heads.

“Colm Cooper was straight there, he was one-on-one but Joey came out of nowhere. He just happened to be there to get a hand in or something. It could have bounced Cooper’s way, but it bounced our way that day.

“Colm Cooper’s face, I can remember it to this day. He was just like ‘fuck’ because he was in on goal. Something like that could have changed the entire complexion of the game.

“In games like that you just have to keep focused, you have to concentrate. You could do well the first couple of balls and then it just takes one where you miss it and the game changes.”

With 13 minutes left, Cooper edged Kerry ahead by the minimum before Tyrone rattled off the last five points of the game.

Maurice Deegan blew his whistle and McMahon was an All-Ireland winner.

“I didn’t appreciate it at the time,” the player said.

“It was still unbelievable though, particularly when Enda McGinley put over that insurance score. You knew then and it was about enjoying the buzz from the Hill.

“That was the moment that stands out for me because everything after it, you’re out of it.

“That moment is crazy. You think ‘it’s over, it’s over’ and you’re relieved that it is.”

The rest of the year would see McMahon’s diary fill up nicely.

In October he was one of seven Tyrone players to pick up an Allstar award and that led to a trip to San Francisco in December for an Allstar game.

Between those events was a visit to Australia as McMahon helped Ireland claim the Cormac McAnallen Cup. The fact that brother Joe, as well as Enda McGinley and Sean Cavanagh, were also part of the squad only added to the trip.

McMahon was an interchange player for the tests in Perth and Melbourne and loved the experience – even if he nearly hit the self-destruct button before the group had even met up.

“I actually thought it was a mick take,” he said of selector Anthony Tohill’s phonecall to invite him into the Irish squad.

“Tohill rang my phone and I thought it was one of the fellas taking the hand out of me so I hung up on him. Thankfully he rang back.

“It was a brilliant opportunity. The training was very tough before going out though.

“I wouldn’t have been the greatest man-marker in the world and you’re trying to follow Paddy Bradley and Benny Coulter. Donaghy was there as well.

“It was a fantastic opportunity and they were all great lads on the trip.

“The Cork ones were brilliant. I would have roomed with Pearse O’Neill and John Miskella. They were boys you would have come across the whole season and it’s only then when you get to know them.”

He also said that Tyrone’s strong presence on the squad didn’t cause any issues back home despite Harte’s well-noted dislike of the International Rules series.

“You had the success of the year and this opportunity came up and Mickey’s not the sort of fella that’s going to stop you.

“There were a number of Tyrone players away that year so nobody was blocked. They told us we had earned it to go and enjoy it. That was it.

“It was a bonus nearly. Personally I loved it. I loved the training, I loved the tackling in it. In Gaelic you were taught to stay on your feet but in that you can go hell for leather and tackle them legally like rugby.

“Wee simple things took a while to get used to. The first drill we did I was doing it like a Gaelic drill. They stopped and asked what I was at, they told me I could just pick the ball up.

“It took a couple of sessions to get used to it but then you were grand.”

It was a season like no other and given that he had only been on the Tyrone panel for two years, McMahon could justifiably expect similar in the future.

Good days would arrive, including four more Ulster titles, but when he finished up in September 2017 he had just that one Celtic Cross to look back on.

“I have to reiterate how lucky I was to come into that squad when I started,” he said. “The boys had won All-Ireland titles and I was able to feed off their winning mentality.

“We went through a bit of a change over the next 10 years and of course Donegal emerged and had fantastic success during that too.

“They set a new standard for everyone but it was still close between us (0-12 to 0-10 in the Ulster semi-final).

“I look back on good days and I’m very fortunate to have them. There are obviously going to be days when you’re close too.

“In 2009 (when they lost the All-Ireland semi-final to Cork) we did everything right. It wasn’t for a want of trying. Things didn’t go for us on the day.

“The 2010 season was another that I felt we had a great chance in. We were in control of that Dublin game and were pipped at the end.

“You do think back and look at a few seasons and think that if a few things had fallen for us it could have been a different story – Mayo in the 2013 semi-final, Kerry just got past us in the 2015 semi-final.

“In 2016 Mayo just got past us and got to the final.

“In the latter stages of my career there was definitely the appetite to get another All-Ireland, and we probably weren’t that far away.

“Club and county there are always going to be games when you don’t get over the line and there are games when you’re fortunate to do so.”

While the first half of McMahon’s county career brought the best of days, it was the opposite at club level as he picked up two county titles in the twilight of his career.

After that loss to Carrickmore in 2005, the St Enda’s men didn’t make it back to the decider until 2014.

The opposition was the same and the game was again decided by a single point – but this time the result was different.

Ronan O’Neill was the hero as his late goal secured a first O’Neill Cup for the club since 1988.

“Carrickmore were deserving of the win in 2005. They had a super team,” said McMahon. “I was 18 or 19 at the time and you’re thinking we’re going to be back all the time but it took nine years.

“In between that there were semi-finals, quarter-finals, so many games when you weren’t far off in.

“We had quality players in 2014 and young lads who had won a lot at underage like Ronan O’Neill, Conan Grugan and Conor Meyler.

“The likes of Connor O’Donnell, Cathal McCarron and the Gallaghers had given so much to it.

“You were just delighted to win it. To win with your club is such a good feeling.”

The Ulster quarter-final pitted this green provincial side against experienced kingpins Crossmaglen.

They trailed by six points at the break, but with the wind behind them in the second half they kept their opponents to a single point to cause a big shock.

Screened live on TG4, Omagh had gone toe-to-toe in an attritional battle and had come out on top.

When it’s put to McMahon that the side had to push away from their ‘nice guy’ tag to grind out wins over noted battlers Carrickmore and Cross, he is very quick to disagree.

“I don’t buy into that mentality that you have to be hard to get over the line, or whatever language you want to use to describe it.

“The boys were not only fantastic footballers but they were great lads too.

“We had come close before and that was testament to the work we were doing and we just kept doing what we had been doing.

“The club had great teams in the past, you look at the ’88 side, and you just wanted to make your mark.

“In 2014 there were games we rode our luck, Coalisland should have beaten us in the first round. In the final Carrickmore had their homework done and they were just unlucky.

“That’s what it was. We found the luck with the goal at the end whereas in previous years we were the side that was unlucky.”

That victory over Cross set up a semi-final with St Eunan’s and Barry Tierney’s goal secured a first Ulster final date with Slaughtneil lying in wait.

Heartbreak would follow in the final at the Athletic Grounds though. The sides were level as the clock ticked into the red and it was Christopher Bradley who popped up with the winner for the Derry side who were just starting out on their incredible journey.

St Enda’s boss Laurence Strain was inconsolable at full-time and the waiting journalists felt like they were kicking a sick puppy when asking for reaction.

Not for the first time, McMahon’s outlook differed from most. Like Tyrone’s loss to Down in 2008, he saw it as a super game where they had just missed out. He was proud of their efforts.

“I always think Ulster football is a different type of football, it’s very enjoyable and very open.

“The final was a top quality game and a top team came out on top.

“You couldn’t have asked for anything else from our team and Chrissy just got an unbelievable score to take it.

“Fair play to him, that’s the nature of football. They pushed on and had great success but it was still a fantastic season for the club.”

A second county medal arrived in 2017. Injury meant that McMahon was only fit for cameos as the championship progressed, but he took so much joy from the 0-10 to 0-8 final win over Errigal Ciaran. He was his usual pragmatic self as they lost to Slaughtneil by the same scoreline in the Ulster quarter-final.

And will there still be time for a third title? McMahon is undecided.

He has been living in Belfast for years now and the journey up and down has taken its toll. That said, he had been there when the coronavirus outbreak took hold and St Enda’s fans will be hoping that he will still be in situ when the action resumes again in a few the weeks.

“Before the lockdown I was involved and starting out the season with the club. I was seeing how things went.

“Definitely each year you look at the start of the season and look at what commitment you can give.

“Nowadays you can’t go halfway, you have to demonstrate a good commitment.

“With that in mind you have to think seriously about your ability to contribute.

“This year I was hopeful that I could play some role, whether it be playing a match here and there.

“I’ve been very lucky over the years, the club has been fantastic in terms of learning your trade.

“I have been fortunate enough to play with some great players over the years.

“I had great men bringing me up and down the road when I maybe didn’t have my license. I think of my current manager Carl McCabe and different men over the years.

“It’s great to have good numbers going down from Belfast, it keeps you motivated. We’ll see.”

If McMahon does hang the boots up for good in the coming weeks, he can look back on a career littered with good times and success. A career when he was happy just to do his best and play the game he loved. What else could