This Dublin team will be spoken about with the best
THE second line of a famous Kerry anthem reads ‘the sun was declining beneath the blue sea’. That’s probably how it felt for Kerry supporters as the clock approached 8pm on a soft balmy Saturday evening in Croke Park.
Dublin’s iconic captain Stephen Cluxton had just raised the Sam Maguire trophy above his head for the fifth time in a row thus breaking through Gaelic footballs 135 year old glass ceiling.
The bright rays of green and gold light that were shining brightly earlier in the day were now completely engulfed by the rising sky blue tide.
From as far back as I can remember the Kingdom were always seen as the aristocrats of Gaelic football - as close as you could get to Irish sporting royalty. Mick O Connell, Mick O Dwyer, Paidi O Se, Pat Spillane, Jack O Shea, Maurice Fitzgerald, Colm Cooper ….. the list of Kerry greats goes on and on.
Even the most ordinary Kerry footballer developed a kind of swagger when he donned that famous green and gold geansai. History will tell you that the Kerry lads always had Dublin’s number. Even during the famous ‘Heffos Army’ days of the Seventies.
Although they never shouted it form the rooftops the young bucks from the Kingdom always fancied their chances against the more polished city slickers.
And so it was this year also. Not that you’d know what was happening as neither management team talked up their side chances. Jim Gavin calmly held his counsel. He fulfils his media duties like a respectful priest at a wake. He says all the right things but you’re none the wiser as to what he’s thinking. Peter Keane says even less.
While Dublin tried their best to deflect all talk of the ‘Drive for Five’ Kerry were secretly plotting to derail the applecart. Minor titles, no matter how many, can never guarantee a rite of passage to senior stardom but Kerry folk knew they were creating something special and were quietly confident these youngster could ambush the Dubs.
Preparations began in Kerry way back in January, not so much with the aim of winning the All Ireland but more so to prevent the five in a row and protect the county’s GAA heritage.
And the plan almost came off. While they were still in with a strong shout up to the midpoint of the second half, the Kerry lads will know they missed their opportunity the first day. Those spurned goal chances of two weeks ago will be debated and dissected over the long winter nights to come.
This Kerry team will win All Irelands in the years to come but that’s cold comfort as they head southwards this Monday morning.
Jim Gavin and the Dubs have written themselves into the annals of GAA history. They almost stumbled at the final hurdle but in the end their class and brilliance shone through.
It’s very difficult to proclaim any single side as the best team in the history of the game but when we are all old and grey (or older and greyer) this great Dublin team will be spoken about with the very best of them. And they have gone about it in the right way, playing an attractive style of football and becoming role models for the next generation of stars.
Despite what the GAA President and others in the halls of power in Headquarters will have you believe, there is no doubt in my mind that the emergence of this great team has been aided by the Association’s investment policy since the 2002 Strategic Review.
It’s fantastic to see Gaelic Games as the number one sport in the capital and coupled with the Dublin Ladies win yesterday will help grow participation levels even further.
In 2002 the GAA recognised they had a major crisis in Dublin and rightly implemented plans to remedy the situation. The results have been a spectacular success.
However there is now a glaring need for redeployment of resources to tackle a similar crisis in many other parts of the country, and in particular the rest of Leinster. This nationwide problem needs to be tackled with the same attitude and similar resources as the 2002 Dublin issue.
And finally congratulations to the Louth Ladies team on their magnificent All Ireland Junior success yesterday in Croke Park. Goals from captain and Player of the Match Kate Flood, Niamh Rice and Lauren Boyle ensured an emphatic victory for the Wee County over Fermanagh as the full forward line trio contributed all but one point of Louth’s 3-13 total.