Evolution of game is still a buzz for Darcy
DUBLIN selector and coach Declan Darcy has praised Stephen Rochford’s courage and innovation for re-inventing Aidan O’Shea as a full-back and admits Mayo’s tactical unpredictability makes them difficult to plan for ahead of Sunday’s All-Ireland football final.
Darcy has been a part of Jim Gavin’s backroom team since the manager was in charge of the Dublin Under-21s and he has enjoyed being at the frontline, watching Gaelic football consistently evolve.
‘It’s fantastic that new ideas keep cropping up. I think it’s important [for the game]. I think Mickey Harte probably evolved it first and Jim McGuinness brought it on. And I thought it was a fantastic move by Stephen Rochford the last day, to put Aidan O’Shea at full-back.
‘It was different and players like that as well, they like to be challenged. The game needs to see different things. After five minutes, it was what everyone was talking about. “What’s O’Shea doing in on [Kieran] Donaghy” It was different. People like that,’ Darcy pointed out. ‘For any team to evolve, they have to think outside the box sometimes to get the tactics right and put the other team on the back foot.
‘Mayo are not as predictable as others — they are likely to do something new against us. But we’ll prepare, we will watch what they have done. But we can’t legislate for what they are going to do and we just have to prepare as best we can.’
Dublin’s patience in continually recycling the ball in the face of the Tyrone blanket defence during the All-Ireland semi-final was just one sign that they are arguably the bestcoached team in Gaelic football history. However, Darcy, as part of the coaching team, stresses that it is the players themselves driving the standards up, pointing out that he is energised when he arrives at training to find senior players out practising. ‘The environment within the group is that everyone wants to get better, and that’s from the coaches right down to the player. That’s great and I am energised when I get to training and I see Stephen Cluxton there before I arrive, kicking his frees and kickouts. The standards are high. The players set high standards and they expect high standards. So everyone is driving the machine.’ Darcy was a talented forward as a player, winning a Connacht SFC medal with Leitrim in 1994 before returning to play with Dublin in the late 1990s and early 2000s. But now as a coach, he is deriving satisfaction from watching how players like Jonny Cooper has developed over the past few years. ‘The winning is one part of the satisfaction you get as a coach, but what is more important is when you watch a player come into the team who is raw, but he goes on to develop and perform. ‘I have been looking at Jonny Cooper since he was 15 or 16 years of age playing club football. To see him evolve to become the player he is now is really satisfying and to be a part of that long journey is really important for us. Any young lads coming in like Con O’Callaghan or Niall Scully have been a reflection of the good work that has been done by Dessie Farrell and others in the development squads, their schools and clubs. Then we put in a facility for them to evolve in an environment they are comfortable with.’
And even though Darcy is preparing for his fourth AllIreland final in the five seasons he has been part of Dublin’s coaching team, he doesn’t take it for granted that the team will be involved in an AllIreland final every September. And he didn’t expect this success when he first came on board.
‘No, it certainly wasn’t like that when we came in. Because we had worked for so long with the Under-21s, we knew the quality of player that was there. We knew that they had potential, but we didn’t understand where that could lead us to, certainly not where we are at the minute. But we are just trying to get the best out of the players as best we can and see where that brings us. We are very fortunate to be where we are.’
‘The players have set high standards’