DAY HEFFO’S MEN CRUMBLED TO ASH

Laois too hot to handle for Dublin as the end of an era came to pass

SMOKING cigarettes is as intimate as we can become with fire without immediate excruciation. Every smoker is an embodiment of Prometheus, stealing fire from the gods and bringing it on back home — unknown

It is unlikely that Kevin Heffernan was preoccupied with such philosophical thoughts as he walked down the O’Connor Park Tullamore sideline sucking hard for nicotine as his Dublin team sucked hard for life.

It was an afternoon which would represent the end and a new beginning too, but more than anything it was one which would underline Heffo’s determination and smarts to build again.

And he did so on the strength of his wit in a time when a backroom most likely referenced a smokefilled place where you sought refuge for a lock-in.

And it was also a time when the only one keeping stats was the scoreboard operator, while GPS were simply three random letters of the alphabet.

But from the ruins of that defeat, Heffernan would go and build a new team that would be champions again inside two years. As much as the nation marvelled at how he led Dublin from nowhere to win the 1974 All-Ireland, the second coming was no less spectacular.

They were leaking water long before they were sunk by Laois — they had a mere two points to spare over Wicklow in the previous round — and there was little in this performance to suggest that he could turn things around.

They could have lost by more had Tom Prendergast followed his first-half penalty conversion with another in the second half but John O’Leary saved smartly.

For a time, especially when Jim Roynane kicked Dublin into an undeserved lead it looked as if they just might get away with it, but once Laois midfielder John Costello flicked Colm Browne’s ‘50’ to the net, this thing was done.

And so was this Dublin team. They knew they had not been beaten by an exceptional Laois team — their only real achievement of note, winning the National League, was still five years down the road – and while this would mean a first Leinster final appearance since 1968, it would amount to nought as they lost 1-18 to 3-9 to Offaly.

Perhaps the reason Heffo was sucking so hard on that cigarette is that it was the moment he knew it too.

Even for hard-nosed football pragmatists, breaking up is never easy to do but he was left with no choice because there was little in this performance to suggest that he could turn things around.

This would mark the end for several players who he leaned heavily on when Dublin made their breakthrough in the 70’s.

It would be the last time that Robbie Kelleher, David Hickey, John McCarthy, Bobby Doyle and Bernard Brogan would strut their stuff for the Dublin cause.

Heffo bit the bullet every bit as hard as he bit that butt-end and while the transition would hardly be a smooth one — they would get hammered by 11 points in the following summer’s Leinster final by Offaly — he would get them there over the line in the infamous ‘Dirty Dozen’ final against Galway in 1983.

Just five of the team that started against Laois — O’Leary, Ray Hazley, Tommy Drumm, Jim Ronayne and the evergreen Anton O’Toole — would line out against Galway.

Mind you, he had his favourite Marino son Brian Mullins back by then.

But when it was all over, the fire was lit by the man who borrowed his spark from the gods.