KEEPER OF THE FAITH
Cluxton has been the standard bearer in Dublin’s remarkable undefeated sequence
AT this stage, Dublin goalkeeper Stephen Cluxton is like a lucky charm, worn around the neck of Jim Gavin. The footballing equivalent of a miraculous medal, tucked away to keep the Gods smiling down.
Except that luck, really, has had very little to do with Dublin chasing down history at Croke Park this evening, all known form over the last two years indicating they will extend an unbeaten streak in League and Championship to 35 games against Roscommon. And surpass a record that dates back to the Kerry team of the late 1920s and early ’30s.
In all but three of the 34-game run, Stephen Cluxton has started and been responsible for 19 of Dublin’s 20 clean sheets. Apart from that brief spell during the 2016 League campaign when Michael Savage deputised, he has been a constant. In a squad where competition for places trumps reputation, his importance to the team makes him the closest thing to undroppable.
In framing Dublin’s historic streak, it all comes back to the enigmatic team captain, now 35, who has redefined the position to the extent that he has a claim to being not just the most influential figure in the county’s golden run of four All-Irelands in six seasons and four successive Division 1 National League titles, but the most influential in the history of the game.
That testing day against Kerry in Killarney in March 2015 — the last time Dublin lost — was notable for one thing: his absence. Sean Currie filled in but Kerry pressed up high in the second half and seemed to read his mind, turning the ball over for key scores.
‘When we got on top of it, after half-time especially, it definitely gave us a platform to attack Dublin,’ admitted Kerry manager Éamonn Fitzmaurice afterwards on the subject of the opposition’s kick-outs.
Six days later at Croke Park, Cluxton was recalled to the starting 15 for the third round League game against Tyrone, his first appearance of the season after a winter break.
The streak that started with a draw against Micky Harte’s side has been notable for how the team and management have learned to think on its feet. That spring of 2015, all the talk was of defensive systems and the future of the game. Derry decided to take the radical defensive set-up employed by Jim McGuinness in the 2011 All-Ireland semi-final to its natural conclusion, setting a new template for 15 men behind the ball. Yet Dublin found a way.
When Westmeath borrowed a sheet from the same playbook in last summer’s Leinster final, Dublin had evolved in their thinking to be bold enough to trust in having seven forwards on the field, Ciaran Kilkenny becoming the deep-lying playmaker. He would end up an All-Star.
Other teams have come to realise that sitting deep on Cluxton’s kickouts is an exercise in futility, giving Dublin’s rampaging half-back line the licence to thrill. Just look at Jack McCaffrey’s coronation as 2015 Footballer of the Year.
It’s taken the likes of Kerry and Mayo to understand the importance of trying to hammer the hammer, of going after Cluxton. A risk-reward strategy that saw Kerry pilfer two quick goals in last year’s semi-final — a passage of play that cost Dublin’s captain a sixth All-Star — but that can also leave gaps in behind for the champions to exploit. Kerry’s approach was to push up mainly after a dead-ball situation when they had time to set-up zonally. Otherwise, Cluxton’s six-second frame of reference for restarts can do serious damage as Dublin counter-attack at breakneck pace.
His mistake in chipping the ball straight out to Paul Geaney in the semi-final saw Dublin cough up 24 in the run up to half-time, the next kick-out being mishit out over the sideline before the Kerry forward then beat him to a punch under a dropping ball.
If he looked spooked, he recovered to deliver a masterclass in the second half. Gavin made a point of saying afterwards how Cluxton set the tone for what was to come in the half-time dressing room.
‘[Any anger] wasn’t demonstrated to me. As a captain he spoke very well at half-time about sticking to our gameplan. These things happen.
‘The way we play our game… we’re very much in some respects open and vulnerable. We accept that; that’s part of our gameplan. We accept that against a team like Kerry they’re going to score against you but we stood true to our values and that’s what saw us home in the end.’
Dublin’s philosophy in a nutshell.
With Dean Rock’s emergence as one of the game’s prime dead-ball exponents, and a whole lot more, Cluxton has been freed of any free-taking or 45 duties, the solitary point he scored in the 34match run coming from a free against Kerry in the 2015 All-Ireland final.
The run has already thrown up historical footnotes. Like Brian Fenton making his senior debut in the group stage of the 2015 League against Monaghan and seeing his career to date dovetail with this remarkable run.
Cluxton’s longevity stretches back to his call-up to the senior squad as a teenager back in 2001, making a play to start in that year’s All-Ireland quarter-final against Kerry. No player on the squad — or in Dublin history — can match his 12 Leinster medals, not to mention the four National Leagues and four All-Irelands.
How he hasn’t scooped a Footballer of the Year award suggests he is judged by a different standard.
In a wonderfully illustrative analysis clip from the 2013 All-Ireland final, Mayo native Kevin McStay showed on The Sunday
Game how central Cluxton was to Dublin’s victory. The montage showed the eight times he placed the ball down on a kicking tee custom-built for his exact kicking swing and found a teammate.
This evening, McStay comes to Croke Park as Roscommon manager. Nobody needs to tell him how important Cluxton is to Dublin’s gameplan. Stopping him – or the champions — is another thing.
As captain he spoke very well... we stood true to our values