LGFA - Johnny Magee recalls some of his clashes with Kerry as his daughter Lauren prepares to face the Kingdom in Thurles on Sat

‘Trip to Tipp’

Article by Daire Walsh

It was a long journey back to full fitness for her, but former Sky Blues defender Johnny Magee has been thrilled to see his daughter returning to play such a big role in Dublin’s ongoing quest to retain the Brendan Martin Cup in 2026.

A starter when the Jackies held off a major challenge from Meath to secure a TG4 Leinster senior football championship title at Croke Park on May 11 of last year, Lauren Magee subsequently missed out on Dublin’s successful All-Ireland SFC campaign owing to an anterior cruciate ligament injury she sustained in training 20 days later.

She was still on the road to recovery during this year’s Lidl National Football League, before eventually making her comeback as a substitute in a Leinster SFC round robin win over Kildare at Parnell Park on May 3.

The two-time TG4 All Star has since re-established herself in the starting line-up and was listed at midfield when late quickfire goals from Orlagh Nolan and Kate Sullivan helped Dublin to come from five points behind to defeat Cork in a dramatic TG4 All-Ireland senior football championship quarter-final bout at Parnell last Saturday week (July 4).

“I’m delighted for her. She put in a serious amount of work to get back in. It was May 31st last year that she did it and she was back on the pitch then 11 months later. I was delighted for her because she put a serious amount of work in to get back. All credit to her,” her father Johnny acknowledged.

“They got a bit of luck there the last day against Cork. When you get two goals in the space of as many minutes, they’re the ones you take. Credit to the girls, they kept going to the very end. I think that was the big thing.”

A starter in seven TG4 All-Ireland senior football championship finals with the Jackies (winning five of them), Lauren will now be hoping to reach another Brendan Martin Cup decider in 2026. Standing in their way this Saturday at FBD Semple Stadium in Thurles will be 2024 All-Ireland SFC winners Kerry.

This is a game that will have particular resonance for Johnny as he featured in famous drawn and replayed All-Ireland senior football championship quarter-final encounters against Kerry in the same venue 25 years ago. Denied a victory by a magnificent Maurice Fitzgerald equaliser in Thurles on August 4, 2001, Dublin ultimately fell to a 2-12 to 1-12 defeat in a rematch seven days later.

“That lead-in to that first match initially, the drawn game, took on a life of its own. Then obviously the replay as well. It’s nice to be a part of that kind of history. It’s not nice to be on the losing side of it alright, but there was so many things that happened leading into that trip into Thurles,” Magee recalled of that two-game saga.

“People abandoned their cars and went into pubs on the way into Thurles because the traffic was nuts. My own wife, she didn’t get in until half-time because the traffic was that bad trying to get into Thurles.

“Then obviously you throw in the Maurice Fitzgerald sideline ball and Vinnie Murphy coming on. There was so many different side stories to those couple of games. You could literally do a documentary on it.”

When Dublin embarked on the 2002 championship under his Kilmacud Crokes club-mate Tommy Lyons, Johnny was joined in the half-back line by Lucan Sarsfields defender Paul Casey. Fast forward to 2018 and the latter found himself working alongside the younger Magee in his capacity as a Dublin senior ladies selector.

When Mick Bohan stepped away as Jackies supremo at the end of a trophy-laden stint in the winter of 2024, Casey and his fellow coach Derek Murray were appointed as joint managers. Magee was also part of Sky Blue panels with Murray in the past and he is pleased to see ex-players taking on pivotal backroom roles with Dublin inter-county teams.

“Paul is a lovely guy. I had the pleasure of playing alongside him for a few years. Derek would have played with ourselves as well. He was on the panel for a couple of years with Dublin.

“It’s nice to see lads who played with Dublin be involved, but also keen and enthusiastic to be involved with the ladies coaching as well. The girls like Lauren, they’re always looking to better themselves. It’s great to see those people who have a valid interest, giving their time back into Dublin. Whether it’s ladies or men.”

The Games Promotion Officer with the Geraldines P Moran club in Dublin’s Cornelscourt for just under eight years (his young brother Darren previously held the same position), Magee was previously in charge of the Wicklow men’s footballers from 2015 to 2017 and has also enjoyed a number of other managerial and coaching roles.

Additionally, he was Lauren’s underage club coach until she moved up to U16 level and as he explains, his family have been steeped in the ladies section of Kilmacud Crokes across several generations – from its initial foundation to their appearance in an AIB All-Ireland senior club championship final against Kilkerrin-Clonberne in December 2024.

“My Mam and a few other mothers had a pain in their backside bringing their daughters around following their older brothers around to matches. So they decided to set up a ladies section. My sister then went on and won the club’s first intermediate championship at ladies football and Lauren was the mascot,” Magee added.

“She would have been three at that time. Then you fast forward another 14 years later, she was 17 when Crokes won the intermediate championship again to go senior. She was starting and then when you think of where they went from there, from intermediate to senior and getting to the All-Ireland final.

“It was disappointing obviously for the loss, but in terms of for us as a family, for Kilmacud in terms of ladies perspective, it was hugely significant. My Mam passed five years ago. She would have been dead three years at that stage, but it was nice to be able to see my own daughter, and obviously her grandchild, playing in Croke Park [with Kilmacud].”

Saturday July 18th, FBD Semple Stadium, Thurles, 5:15pm. Dublin vs Kerry.

Buy tickets HERE