Record-breaking Dubs set to continue their run against old foes Kerry
Jim Gavin’s side are rewriting history and haven’t finished yet
IT MAY be football’s most celebrated rivalry but these days no one doubts who holds the upper-hand.
It was inconceivable at the start of this decade that Dublin, humiliated in the 2009 All-Ireland quarter-final by the Kingdom’s latest golden generation, would even be in a position to compete with the game’s great aristocrats but all is changed utterly.
As they meet tonight in Croke Park, it is Kerry who are desperately searching to be competitive after a decade in which Dublin’s boot has hardly left their throats.
It has long been accepted that this is Dublin’s greatest ever team and now they are chasing down ghosts as much as glory, with Mick O’Dwyer’s one-time untouchables now in their sight-lines.
Their relentless pursuit of perfection could see them catch and overtake O’Dwyer’s great team should Gavin lead his team to an historic five-in-a-row.
But already his team have been busy rewriting history and to mark Jim Gavin’s sixth season in charge, here are six records which serve to remind that this is a team that has already shaken the game and its most celebrated proponents to the core.
1 Unbeaten record This may be an old news story, but its marvel does not fade in the retelling.
In many ways, this is the one that cut Kerry deepest and underlined why this Dublin team have reached a level of consistency that has never been seen before.
It wasn’t just that in drawing with Kerry last spring — an unlikely escape given that they were two points behind going into injury time in Tralee — they equalled the existing all-time unbeaten 34-game which had been in place for 84 years.
But, just to remind that Dublin’s torment of Kerry extended deep into their history, that record had been held by one of the great Kingdom teams (1928-33).
Gavin’s team would go on to set a new 36-game record before Dean Rock’s last-minute free to tie last April’s League final against Kerry came back off the upright.
But now it’s starting all over again — their latest unbeaten run stands at 10 games and counting — which carries an echo of Alex Ferguson’s assertion in the aftermath of Manchester United’s historic treble winning season in 1999.
‘I don’t think anyone will ever do that again, but if there is a team that does it will be us,’ vowed Fergie.
Jim Gavin will never be prodded into making such a bullish declaration, but you just know that he is thinking it.
2 Number of major trophies won in a single decade This is a three-way tie for now but not for long. Dublin’s record of 16 trophies this decade equals the haul of Mick O’Dwyer’s great Kerry team of the 70s and that earlier great Kingdom team of the 1930s. But Dublin have two whole seasons left to set a new record, which, not least given their dominance of the Leinster championship, can be taken as a given. Indeed, Dublin can argue that their yet-tobe-completed haul is the most valuable, coming in the form of five All-Irelands, four National Leagues and seven provincial titles.
In contrast, Kerry’s haul in the 1970s was made up of four AllIrelands, five National Leagues and seven provincials, while their predecessors in the 1930s managed five All-Irelands, two National Leagues and nine Munster Championships.
3 Stephen Cluxton — football’s most successful ever captain It is not that long ago when being asked to name the eight players who lifted the Sam Maguire twice was a staple question in the local pub quiz.
For the record the eight were Joe Barrett (Kerry), Jimmy Murray (Roscommon), John Joe O’Reilly (Cavan), Sean Flanagan (Mayo), Enda Colleran (Galway), Tony Hanahoe (Dublin), Declan O’Sullivan (Kerry) and Brian Dooher (Tyrone), but their place in history has been torched.
In one sense that was inevitable given that the team captain is now selected by management rather than nominated by county champions — Kerry one of the few who still bow to that tradition — but even so Stephen Cluxton has not just broken free from that club of eight, he now dwarfs them as a four-time All-Ireland winning captain.
Oh… and he isn’t finished yet.
4 Putting the hammer on Kerry In many ways, Kerry’s value system is such that it can argue with some vehemence that unbeaten records and National League titles count for very little, but nothing hurts them like losing to the same team over and over again in the Championship.
For all the talk of the celebrated Kerry/Dublin rivalry, the reality is that for over a century it was a hopelessly lopsided affair.
Only twice in their first 24 Championships meetings — a
sequence of result that covered 116 years — did Dublin ever manage to beat Kerry back-to-back.
But, in the space of just seven years this decade, they have lowered the Kingdom’s colours on four consecutive occasions.
Only Down can claim a similar record (they have won all five of their Championship clashes), but Kerry view that as little more than a simple twist of fate.
Dublin’s unrelenting dominance over such a short space of time, though, amounts to a brutal twist of the knife. 5 Jim Gavin’s win rate No one disputes that Mick O’Dwyer’s eight All-Ireland wins in 12 years makes him the most successful manager in the history of the game, but Jim Gavin is already chasing him hard.
True, Gavin has served only a third of O’Dywer’s 15-year tenure, but right now he is more than holding his own.
He has won four All-Irelands to O’Dwyer’s three in his first five years, while his win rate is the highest ever witnessed in the game. O’Dywer’s 54 game Championship record, saw 43 wins, four draws and seven losses, which computes at an overall 80 per cent win rate. Thirty one Championship games in, and Gavin has won 28, drawn two and lost just the once, which means that his win rate over half a decade clocks in at an astonishing 90 per cent. 6 Stephen Cluxton’s All-time appearances record With the changes in Championship format, this is a record that has become more vulnerable to change but for a period of time it was held by the one breakfast table in West Kerry. The Ó Sés, Tomas and Marc, both held the record for 88 Championship appearances up until last year’s Leinster final when they were joined by Stephen Cluxton, who now sits on 91 games and counting. Now, he could be the first to break through that 100-appearance ceiling.