It’s not resources that set Dubs apart ... it’s management
THERE must have been a few Mayo supporters among the 15,313 crowd at Castlebar on Saturday night who remembered the joyous scenes at the final whistle against Dublin back in the spring of 2012.
Such was the feeling of abandon that a few of those huddled together behind Stephen Cluxton’s goal posed for selfies in front of the electronic scoreboard. The neon record read: ‘Maigh Eo 0-20 Ath Claith 0-8’, the final insult being that the natives didn’t even bother to get the Irish spelling of the All-Ireland champions right as they were made to suffer the closest thing to a public humiliation, on live Saturday night television too.
A lot of other things happened on the same night.
Conor Mortimer’s point midway through the first half carried a significance all of its own, putting him out on his own as Mayo’s alltime leading scorer. It was one of 13 points from James Horan’s side in that half alone, all but two coming from open play.
Cluxton was cleaned out on his kick-out, that once-in-a-bluemoon scenario occurring as the various planets misaligned between misdirected restarts, a midfield beaten up a stick to the extent Ross McConnell was replaced by Eamon Fennell at half-time and a middle eight where Mayo were more ravenous for the breaking ball.
Just to compound Dublin’s problems, the champions finished with 13 men. In a fit of indiscipline, Paul Flynn was first shown a straight red card after lashing his elbow back while being held on the ground while Diarmuid Connolly was sent off late on for a second yellow card offence.
Hence the Mayo supporters documenting the final scoreboard for posterity.
Like last Saturday night, Dublin travelled there as reigning champions but minus any grand talk of dominating the game, especially when Mayo repeated the win in high summer in an All-Ireland semi-final.
Split the county in two? ‘Ah, would you stop’ would have been the common refrain from both sets of supporters.
There’s a photograph of that final scoreline and it’s tempting now to imagine it in a sepia-tinge because since Jim Gavin took charge the following season, it has been made to feel like a relic from a bygone era.
Dublin’s sustained level of excellence has become so commonplace that it is barely commented upon.
If Dean Rock’s kick hadn’t come off the post against Kerry in last year’s Allianz League decider, Gavin’s team could well be targeting a record sixth consecutive National League title. Or a record unbeaten streak in League and Championship of 46 games rather than being stuck on an unprecedented 36.
The tally versus Mayo since 2012 reads: 10 wins, three draws and no defeats.
WHILE all part of the narrative, it’s time to take a breath and park for a second the talk of sponsors, money, population, splitting Dublin, media management, Jim Gavin’s non-celebration, dummy teams, the cynicism of both Dublin and Mayo in the All-Ireland endgame, and also recognise the true quality of this Dublin team. What they are achieving is simply phenomenal in round-the-calendar terms. Mick O’Dwyer’s Kerry from 1978to ’86 — regarded as the benchmark in Gaelic football — didn’t even pretend to go all out in League and Championship.
The continual smashing of records points to a level of extraordinary achievement that deserves to be recognised. It is underpinned by a vision of the game that Gavin boldly set out when he could have done — what so many others before him had attempted — and tried to mimic the winning formula of the then reigning All-Ireland champions, Donegal.
On Saturday, 36-year-old Cluxton kept the machine purring, hitting another milestone of 100 League appearances to go with his all-time Championship record of 91 clocked up last September.
The opening moments captured the attention to detail of the Gavin era.
At the throw-in, Michael Darragh Macauley shouldered Aidan O’Shea who has made winning these tussles a badge of honour. The contact meant Brian Fenton caught the ball uncontested before slipping it to his partner who sent a kick pass of 30 metres inside to Paul Mannion.
Right from the start, Dublin set the tempo, the terms of engagement.
After 45 seconds full-back Michael Fitzsimons kicked a free inside his won 20-metre line back to Cluxton who galloped up the field, Dublin’s front-foot strategy away from home saw Mannion scamper in behind and thump the ball to the net.
It’s not just a golden generation of players but a golden generation of management and coach- ing: the lines of running, the angles of attack, the left-foot/ right foot skillset, the composure on the ball once the players know they are far enough ahead to kill the clock. It’s all there.
Mannion is the epitome of how Dublin have been hothousing talent. Where the ordinary player becomes a good player, becomes a great player. In last year’s All-Ireland semi-final against Tyrone, a player who has developed into one of Dublin’s blue-chip finishers and leaders in attack forced four turnovers on Tyrone players. He’s arguably one of team’s best tacklers.
Dublin’s vision for the game is forcing a complete re-think: in Tyrone where Seán Cavanagh’s weekend plea for Mickey Harte to set up more offensively hardly went unnoticed; in Monaghan where the team’s talisman Conor McManus stressed the same; in Donegal where Declan Bonner taking up the baton from Rory Gallagher has marked a shift in emphasis.
And this with two Footballers of the Year, Jack McCaffrey and Bernard Brogan, sidelined with cruciate injuries, with Diarmuid Connolly only making a cameo at Castlebar.
When it comes to high finance, population, and so on, all the same natural advantages were there in 2012 when Mayo buried Dublin’s ambition — twice. Last Saturday night, there were no locals hanging around the scoreboard to record a night that was noteworthy for being such a matter of routine.
What they are doing is phenomenal