Paul Caffrey

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Personal information
Paul Caffery
Sport	Gaelic football
Place of birth	Dublin,Ireland
Nickname(s)	Pillar
Club Management
Clubs		Years
Na Fianna		?-2002
Achievements
Club	All Ireland	Province	County
Na Fianna	0	1	3
Inter County Management
County		Years
Dublin		2004-Present
Achievements
County	All Ireland	Province	League
Dublin	0	3	0

Paul Caffrey is the current Dublin Gaelic football Senior manager and a Dublin based Garda.

1 Biographical Information
2 Managerial career
3 Notes and references
4 External links

[edit] Biographical Information

Caffrey is often called Pillar, 'a nickname bizarrely derived from his penchant for playing with caterpillars when he was a child.'^[1] Caffrey succeeded Tommy Lyons as Dublin manager in November 2004.

Caffrey grew up on Dorset St. on the Northside of Dublin, where his parents ran a greengrocers. His football career began in St. Vincents CBS school in Glasnevin and nearby club Na Fianna. Caffrey represented his county at minor level, and is a brother of John Caffrey, who won a senior All-Ireland medal in 1983.

Caffery is a member of Án Garda Síochána, where he is stationed at Store St. Garda Station, Dublin.

[edit] Managerial career

Caffrey was a co-selector along with Dave Billings and Paddy Canning when Tommy Lyons was manager of the Dublin Gaelic football team between from 2001 to 2004. During this period, Dublin won one Leinster senior, two Leinster under-21 and one All-Ireland under-21 titles. Previous to his involvement with Dublin, Caffrey was manager of Dublin club side Na Fianna, reaching the All-Ireland Club Final in 2000, where they lost to Crossmaglen Rangers of Armagh.

Caffrey has David Billings, Paul Clarke and Brian Talty as his management team for a three-year period. In his first year as manager he took Dublin to their 45th Leinster Senior Football Championship title in 2005. He repeated this feat against Offaly in 2006 Leinster Senior Football Championship and went on to take Dublin to the All-Ireland semi-final, where Dublin were narrowly beaten by Mayo. Caffrey received a one match ban for shouldering Mayo's John Morrison before the All-Ireland semi-final against Mayo in Croke Park. That meant that he had to watch Dublin's opening 2007 game in the Championship from the stands.^[2]

2007 started with a winning start with Dublin taking the O'Byrne Cup with a 1-18 to 2-13 win over Leinster rivals Laois in the final.[1] The 2007 NFL has brought about mixed fortunes for Caffrey. Dublin were defeated in their first game in Croke Park under floodlights against Tyrone and Dublin went on to narrowly defeat Limerick in the second game with a bad performance.[2] The third game was another defeat for Dublin which was followed by a one-sided game with Dublin easily defeating Cork.[3][4] Caffrey's Dublin team finished in fifth position in the national football league and were therefore relegated to Division Two for 2008.[5]

In Caffrey's first Championship game as manager in 2007, Dublin held Meath who forced the game into a replay.[6] Dublin eventually won the tie in the replay by beating Meath by 0-16 to 0-12 and therefore go on to qualify to play Offaly in the Leinster Semi-Final. Pauls decision to replace Tomás Quinn with Mark Vaughan as the freetaker proved the vital difference between the sides.[7] Dublin met Offaly in the semi final in a one sided game that finished 1-12 to 0-10 which sent Dublin to the Leinster final against Laois. Dublin won the Leinster championship by 3-14 to 1-14 points, giving Caffrey a 100% record in the Leinster for three years.[8] Dublin played Derry in the quarter final of the all-Ireland series and won the game by 0-18 to 0-15 to set up a semi final against Kerry for the first time since 1977. They subsequently lost that game to Kerry on a 1-15 to 0-16 scoreline.

After the 2007 season, National football league relegation, a Leinster title and a semi-final against Kerry, Pillar was offered a one year extension to his contract for 2008 to take him into his fourth year as Dublin boss.^[3]

Dublins 2008 season began with a O'Byrne Cup game against Wicklow taking Pillars Dublin to the quarter final against Westmeath, which Dublin won easily. The semi final clash against Carlow was postponed due to the bad weather, until Tuesday January 22nd. If that game falls foul to the weather once again, tossing of a coin would provide the winners. The reason for that is because the final is scheduled for the following weekend, and a result from Dublin's semi final is a must.^[4]