'I had a little itch that I wanted to scratch' - Philly McMahon on why he joined Kildare champs Naas

The new Naas manager and former Dublin great, Philly McMahon, got his tenure at the county town team off to the perfect start, defeating Sarsfields (third time in a row), in the Kildare SFL Div 1 final (Leinster Leader Cup) collecting their fourth title in succession.

McMahon is joined by a man he played with at Ballymun Kickhams, James Burke, who has coached both Mayo (his native county) along with two sets of management teams at Cavan.

Asked why he agreed to take charge at Naas, his first major managerial appointment since retiring in 2021, the 38 year old, holder of eight All-Ireland medals said, “I had a little itch that I wanted to scratch, I am passionate around performance coaching, I've worked on S&C World Sports Science, I'm doing punditry at the minute, I've done a lot of aspects in environment needs in regards to working with a team so when I got the opportunity to talk with Naas and seen what the drive and passion is like behind the scenes, the work that is being done, it married really well with what I wanted to do.

“Naas is just 30 minutes down the road, county jobs that I have been offered were a good bit away from me and I suppose, strange as it sounds, with a captain like Eoin Doyle, who I have played against and experienced what he is about, that gives you a push that says I want to work with this group because if he is leading it that is a bonus; but there are loads of leaders here.

“The great thing is that Naas have a great management team in situ, there is a lot that has been done already; myself and James are just adding to that, a lot has been done over the last four years, we are just adding to that, it is important to look at the work that has been done and working well for the lads and then just tweak things and see can we challenge them along the way.”

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