Many sports people find it difficult to come to terms with the end of their time as an elite athlete.
But former Dublin footballer Philly McMahon hasn't had much anguish about ending his 15-year inter-county career last Christmas. Not yet anyway.
As a business owner, new father (to seven-month old Lennon), Bohemian FC performance coach and fledgling pundit, it seems like he just hasn't had the time to dwell on it.
"I've spoken to a couple of lads over the last couple of weeks about this and a few of them have openly said they've struggled a little bit," he tells RTÉ Sport.
"I was trying to understand what they were struggling with because I don't think I was aware I was struggling with it. I was trying to think, 'What are you're struggling with so that if I’m struggling with that then I know I’m struggling?'
"So I don’t know if I’m aware of the struggles of that but I do know what has helped me really transition is doing the punditry work [he will appear on RTÉ 2's Dublin SFC coverage this Saturday and also has an Irish Independent column].
"It has really helped me keep the stories alive. It’s like counselling in many ways because you’re talking about your career and the stories you have there inside you and when you speak about them, it’s no different to when you have a mental-health issue and you’re speaking about it. Any trauma you have and you’re talking about it.
"Doing the stuff around the column and the podcast has helped me massively to transition. I think if I didn’t do that I would have locked a lot of stuff up and it would have hit me eventually I suppose."
What exactly does he do with Bohs, the League of Ireland club based in Phibsborough? He could tell you but then...
"A performance coach is like a CIA agent," he jokes. "You try to make sure that the information you're gathering up is protected because it’s not yours.
"I can't really disclose what I do with the players but ultimately what I try to do is help the management team get the best out of the players that are there. The management team that are there at the minute are on an interim basis.
"We had a three-year plan at the start of last season but in the soccer world those plans don’t always go smoothly because of the way the structures of the league and clubs are.
"We didn’t win silverware last year but we were close to it. We were a kick away from winning the FAI Cup, another kick away from at least extra time and penos over in Greece [against PAOK in the Europa Conference League]. We created history getting to the third round."
The rapid turnover of players in the domestic soccer league - most are on single-season contracts - has been an eye-opener in comparison to his GAA background.
Bohs appear to have regressed this year and recently parted company with manager Keith Long. But they lost big talents like Andy Lyons, Dawson Devoy and Georgie Kelly either before or during the campaign.
The players' contracts weren’t long and because of that you’re rebuilding every season with a different group
"I think the club is going through a brilliant transition," says McMahon. "When Keith Long started with Bohemians, the club was in debt and had very low budgets.
"Keith got them to a level where the perception Is we need to compete for silverware and get into Europe every year. The difficulty with that is that the players’ contracts weren’t long and because of that you’re rebuilding every season with a different group.The turnover of players means you restart again.
"The work I would have heavily done last year changed a lot this year because you had new players coming in. I think it was eight new players. In the transfer window we had another eight players and two maybe go out. You’re essentially working with three different teams."
He points to Tyrone's underwhelming All-Ireland SFC defence this year as an example of how disruptive such radical change in a playing group can be.
"If you can imagine going into an inter-county changing room and saying 'I’m going to take eight players out of this team’ it’s very hard.
"You can probably look at Tyrone this year, the amount of players they lost and how difficult it was to get to the standards they were at the previous year."
McMahon revealed last month that he had received an unsolicited approach to manage an unnamed inter-county team, which he turned down. It wasn't the last.
"I got one other county on to me, asking would I get involved in a coaching role, performance coaching and coaching on the pitch," he says.
"I was flattered by the opportunity, and I will eventually get into that space, but I just can’t see it at the minute with time. Especially with the young baby."
A few eyebrows were raised last week when former Armagh star and well-established pundit Oisín McConville chose to take his first foray into inter-county management with Wicklow, a county that last contested a Leinster final in the 19th century.
Was McMahon surprised?
"Not necessarily. I’ve heard Oisín speak before when I’ve been at events with him. He’s got something that, regardless of his football knowledge, which we all know he has, you would listen to him.
"Just because of how authentic he is as a person, the adversity he has gone through. For me, a team like Wicklow, if there’s somebody that can get the best out of that group it’s him.
"They’ll see what he has done as a footballer but they’ll also see what he has done in his life and they’ll say 'We have been through adversity and we will be through adversity. Every team does.’
"Can you get to the stage where you’re getting the best out of the group? That’s ultimately what you’re there to do as a manager and management team; think he’ll do that and will do really well."
"The diversity in GAA management is getting broader. If you look at the age profile of some of the managers… Mayo [Kevin McStay], [Martin] McHugh being tipped for Donegal, [Colm] O’Rourke. You’ve got a lot of experience going into these changing rooms.
"Who knows what way the game will go in the next couple of years? If you look at the soccer world, it [management] has gone a bit younger.
"I’m fascinated by the diversity of it and the way boards are thinking in terms of what they are seeing in other counties."
McMahon is speaking as part of Focus Ireland's 'Shine A Light Night' sponsored sleep-out, which aims to raise €1.5m to help fight family homelessness.
It's a subject that Philly says is "really close to home for me", having seen his late brother John become homeless while he was struggling with heroin addiction.
"Every time I walk down the street and see a homeless person it triggers me a little bit. My brother was homeless at one point when he was going through his addiction.
"We would have done stuff with Dublin throughout the years, where we would go in and feed the homeless, stuff like that. Nobody would have seen it on social media because we did it for the right reasons: to connect, keep grounded and give a little bit of energy to people that are struggling.
"I know there are a lot of people in emergency accommodation, which is terrible, but there are a lot of people on the streets that society has let down in many ways.
"Obviously, some of them have made different choices that led them to there, but there are definitely a lot of people you would see that are struggling with their mental health and addiction on the streets and that shouldn’t be the case.
"They should be supported and sheltered to give them every opportunity to come back into society and be a really valuable person."
Listen to the RTÉ GAA Podcast at Apple Podcasts, Soundcloud, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.
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