New Dublin manager Niall Ó Ceallacháin will be seeing plenty of Croke Park in the new year.
The double-jobbing boss will lead his club Na Fianna into the All-Ireland final on January 19 when they meet Cork representatives Sarsfields.
Six days later, he will make his inter-county managerial debut when the Dubs host Antrim at HQ.
Top-scorer Colin Currie described his boss as “the busiest man I know” as he juggles an extended club campaign with county preparations.
Ó Ceallacháin is taking the workload in his stride with the support of his two backroom teams.
“It’s not about me. It’s about the support teams,” he insisted.
“The coaches here have put in an incredible amount of work in order to have the lads where they need to be. And the same with Dublin.
“The set-up and backroom teams around both the Na Fianna team here and the inter-county team, it’s busy but it’s not about me.
“There’s a lot of people who are sticking a hell of a lot of work in.”
It will make for a very different Christmas for Ó Ceallacháin and the Glasnevin men after overhauling Galway champions Loughrea in a semi-final nailbiter.
“We’ll enjoy it for a day or two but they’ve had enough Christmases and winters where they’ve had nothing to do so I don’t think they’ll have a problem with that.
“It means everything. The club is who we are. It’s our identity. It’s built around our families. It’s playing with everybody that we grew up with. It’s working with everyone that we grew up with.
“All of the coaches, all of the parents who have supported all those lads to be where they are now looking forward to an All-Ireland Club final in five weeks’ time… I would just be so proud of the players but really proud of all the people who put so much work into them as well.
“It means everything. There’s not so many things pure left in life but this is definitely one of them.”
Sarsfields snatched a similarly late victory over Slaughtneil in the other semi-final, which Ó Ceallacháin’s backroom staff will be scrutinising this week.
“I heard that was similarly tight,” he said. “Not surprised either, there’s very little between the four teams.
“I think we’ve played them once over the years but I’m sure there’s nothing they don’t know about us and we’ll have a look at them in the next week or two as well.”
Na Fianna didn’t reach top gear against Loughrea but Ó Ceallacháin left Semple Stadium delighted with the battling qualities to overturn a five-point deficit.
“I did feel it was coming. Often, you could be managing teams and you feel it’s coming and it doesn’t come. It eventually did break.
“I was really proud of that second half. The levels of aggression in and out of possession were really good.
“The first half we weren’t where we needed to be. They were absolutely at the pace of it and we weren’t at the pace of it.
“We struggled for almost all that first half but we clung in there so there’s a tremendous amount of work for us to do in the next few weeks to get some things right.”