JUST A NUMBER
Gavin rejects talk of Dublin’s record streak
IMMORTALITY beckons for Dublin next Saturday night as they have the opportunity to set a new unbeaten record in League and Championship against Roscommon, but their manager Jim Gavin insists the milestone won’t even enter their conversation this week.
Dublin’s hard-fought, fiery 0-13 to 0-13 draw with Kerry in Austin Stack Park means that Gavin’s team are now unbeaten in 34 games.
‘Those records are just an indication of how teams have played in the past,’ Gavin said. ‘When our players finish playing, they might look back on it. But it is not referenced. Our focus now goes to Roscommon. We have never looked to the past, never, and we don’t intend to do so now.’
THEY will still be hurting in Kerry this morning, more than 36 hours after the conclusion of this fiery, narky affair. And not just because Dublin came to Tralee and managed to equal their own long-standing record in League and Championship. Even when they stand for 84 years, those things can be equalled. Or broken.
No. What the Kingdom will find most painful, and what is likely to deepen their obsession with this Dublin team, is that the game was a missed opportunity to change the record against the reigning League and All-Ireland champions.
In Kerry, they are not accustomed to having the foot of another on their throats. It is usually, the other way around. And it showed in the febrile atmosphere in the stands on Saturday evening and in the narkiness and nastiness on the field that saw referee Seán Hurson show 13 cards and dismiss Ciarán Kilkenny late on.
They will say otherwise, of course. Paul Geaney did as much in the aftermath of this game. ‘I don’t really think about all the defeats to Dublin that much,’ the forward said after scoring seven of his team’s points.
‘For me, it is not that we lose games but the manner in how we lose them. When we looked back at each of those games we lost, it was the performance we were worried about, that we hadn’t performed for the full 70 minutes. Okay, maybe we didn’t get the result but we got the performance that we’ve been chasing the last couple of years against Dublin.’
However, it will be deeply frustrating for Éamonn Fitzmaurice and his players that they couldn’t seal the deal. There was a vulnerability to the All-Ireland champions here. An uneasiness to their play, especially in the first half when there were penalised for uncharacteristic technical fouls like pick-ups and too many steps.
Kerry did so much right all night. They have been blown away by Dublin in the final 15 minutes of their last four matches and it looked like happening again when Dean Rock put Dublin 0-11 to 0-10 up in the 54th minute.
Instead, it was Kerry who looked more energetic towards the end. They just lacked composure. Paul Murphy momentarily lost his concentration, kicked the ball into the grateful arms of Kevin McManamon and the ball was worked to Paul Mannion, who nailed the equalising score. It was the 34th game that the remarkable All-Ireland champions have refused to lose.
‘We’re disappointed we didn’t win the game.’ Fitzmaurice admitted. ‘I’m proud of the lads because Dublin got ahead of us down the stretch as they have done a good few times in the past couple of years. But we kept at it and it looked like we were going to see it out. It was unfortunate a mistake at the end led to a score.’
Kerry got their tactics spot on for most of the game. They upset Dublin’s rhythm and Brendan Kealy’s kick-outs were giving David Moran a platform to be dominant in midfield, where Brian Fenton didn’t exert his usual influence. And they did their best to unsettle Stephen Cluxton, too.
It’s no coincidence that the last game Dublin lost, to Kerry in Killarney over two years ago, was the last game Cluxton missed. From early on, Kerry preyed on Cluxton’s notoriously fiery temperament which led to a melee in his goalmouth in the 22nd minute, which Geaney was central to.
‘There were just a couple of balls
around his goal and I just kicked one of them away. Cluxton just took offence to that and that was basically what it was,’ Geaney explained.’
The crowd tried to get under his skin, too. When he kicked one ball out of play early in the second half, as Kerry led 0-9 to 0-5 (it was 0-5 apiece at half-time), it elicited one of the loudest cheers of the evening from the home support.
Cluxton and Geaney were two of seven booked in the first half as tempers frayed (Tadhg Morley and Kilkenny grappled with each other for most of the opening period). By the 25th minute, there had been as many yellow cards as scores, five on each count and Fitzmaurice and Philly McMahon had a heated discussion leaving the field at half-time.
Dublin boss Jim Gavin was pleased by the resolve his team showed to come back from four points down, with the added bonus of seeing the likes of Cian O’Sullivan, Paul Flynn and Bernard Brogan all feature for the first time this year — indicating the champions are only going to get stronger.
It is why this will feel, more and more, like an opportunity missed in Kerry as this week progresses.