Magee had returned from Australia after spending seven months Down Under, and a few days later he was set to move out to Boston on the next leg of his global tour.

The buzz of Dublin was catching him, though. He was missing the clack of studs on the hard sod of Croke Park.

There were nights in Sydney when news of Dublin would filter through. He heard of the appointment of Paul Caffrey and stories of Dublin's progression in the league.

He'd get the odd text when Mark Vaughan managed to split the posts with a wonder point and Magee would long for the dirt of Parnell Park on a wet and windy Sunday.

"But somebody was always around to say 'forget about it, come out and have a beer'." he recalls. "The thing is, Dublin and football was always there in the back of the mind, picking at you. Even though you were on the other side of the world you'd be thinking of that all the time."

So, sitting up there, in the heat of the Cusack Stand, Magee decided that Boston and America could wait. He turned his back to the world to play for Dublin. "During the Wexford game I was asking myself where I wanted to be, " he admits. "Did I want to watch the rest of the season in some bar in the States or did I want to stay and fight for a place? I knew where my heart was."

He rejoined the Dublin squad and tasted his first raw slice of championship action in 12 months when he came on in the dying minutes of the drawn Tyrone game. It vexed some that the traveller started the replay at midfield having missed the hard slog of winter but, if anything, it showed his standing in the Dublin camp and the intent of Caffrey. Besides, had a manager been in place at the time of his departure, perhaps a few encouraging words in his ear may have placed those travel plans on hold.

The winter just gone had a different feel to the one before it. This season, Magee was enveloped in Kilmacud Crokes' push for national success and once they came undone in the All Ireland club semi-final, he was back for his county the following weekend.

As ever, it's been a mixed old league so far. Having beaten the All Ireland champions, Dublin fell in their own back garden to Monaghan.

Tangled up with Kilmacud, Magee watched these games from the sideline and returned for the third round against Offaly. He found himself coming into a team that had gone from world-beaters to no-hopers in the space of a fortnight. It's the lot of the Dublin footballer. "The hype and the expectation comes with the territory, " he says.

"Water off a duck's back."

What troubled him most were the defeats on the road to Fermanagh and Cork. It's a long way to travel, he says, only to turn around and come home with no points to show.

"Things clicked against Mayo, which was great because it was our last game of the league at home, " he says. "It showed what we were capable of. Against Fermanagh and Cork, well, we could have won both of those games and had we done that then we'd really be challenging for a semi-final spot against Kerry."

As it stands, Dublin can still qualify for the play offs, though they need an unlikely set of results today. Ciaran Whelan is absent through injury casting an extra dash of responsibility on the shoulders of the 24-year-old, and the season that stretches ahead of him is the most crucial so far. He's edging towards the stage where experience of years past will have to show and a clash with a Kerry midfield that has operated well in the league will provide a barometer.

"Unless the gods are with us, Kerry will be our final strong game before the championship so there's an awful lot at stake, " he says.

"It's the last chance to put yourself up against established players and really see where you are. It's going to be shop-window time as well with fellows trying to nail down a place for the rest of the season."

Back to the familiar rhythm of April. Looking at the fading light of the league with a nod towards what is yet to come.

The travel plans haven't gone away but for now success with Dublin and Kilmacud is what matters. Boston is still there and it's not a bad place to visit with a medal or two in the pocket.