DUBLIN LEGEND ROCK SAYS RECORD WON’T FAZE CURRENT CROP
JIM GAVIN has insisted that the chance to set a new unbeaten record this Saturday won’t enter the thoughts of his Dublin players this week, but Sky-blue legend Barney Rock feels that it definitely will be in the back of their minds. Rock, whose son Dean underlined his importance to the All-Ireland champions in Tralee last weekend by nailing nine frees, feels it will be important just to put an end to all the talk of records by beating Roscommon in Croke Park. ‘I wouldn’t say that these fellas go and sit down and look at the papers but they do know what’s going on around them, they are an intelligent bunch of boys. ‘And no matter what Jim says, the record is there and if they go along and beat it on Saturday night, they won’t mind because that will be the end of it,’ said Rock. ‘They will have beaten the record and it will be theirs until someone else beats it. People might make more of it but the record will be beat. If they beat it on Saturday night, they will only be thinking of the next match against Monaghan. There won’t be any more talk of records. ‘Saturday will be important just to beat it.’ However, the form of Dean over the past 18 months has certainly pleased his father. And it has been his impressive consistency from the placed-balls that has caught the eye the most. ‘I think it’s the consistency that he is performing with now. He has performed well and he has kicked well,’ Rock continued. ‘He is improving in all his kicking. But that is down to him. He practises hard and he’s got a good attitude. ‘It is important to have someone there who is going to be capable of saving Stephen [Cluxton] from coming up the other end of the field. I would say that he was a good free-taker two or three years ago but he is more consistent now. And he seems to be putting over the pressure kicks.’ Rock’s son is part of a group of talented twenty-somethings that have come through the Dublin under-age system and Rock believes that the ability of the county to nurture talent between the ages of 18 to 21 has created this golden period for Dublin football. ‘Over the past 10 years, the county
board have dong things right structurally, getting more players involved at under-age and that has been very good for Dublin. ‘You can see the players are coming through. ‘It is not that Dublin have won minor All-Irelands, they have only appeared in a couple of finals, but over the last 10 years, the biggest thing is what has happened from minor to Under-21. ‘When you get players at minor, you have three years to develop them and some fellas will drop off and some will come forward, but that is where you get your senior players. ‘And if you look at the Dublin team, they’ve got — in the last seven or eight years — four every year. Like, Dean’s team would have come through... Rory O’Carroll, James McCarthy, Dean and Jonny Cooper. ‘And then you look at the next phase, you have Ciarán Kilkenny, Emmet Ó Conghaile who has been unlucky, you have Mannion and that, and you look at these [players], I think that’s where Dublin’s main strength is, they’re developing 19 to 21-year-olds. Dessie Farrell has done a great job, Jim [Gavin] before him did a great job.’