POWER HELD IN RESERVE
It’s back to square one for Rock as he eyes more records
‘Those games
against Tyrone stick out now’
WHEN the curtain falls on this footballing summer on Sunday evening, Dublin’s final Super 8 match against Roscommon is unlikely to feature on any highlight reel. But Dean Rock won’t forget that day in Croke Park, as that dead rubber constituted his most unusual experience of the entire season.
For the first time in 64 League and Championship matches, Rock didn’t feature for Jim Gavin’s side. In Dublin’s current era of dominance, the second-generation star has been a mainstay. One of his manager’s most reliable and trusted lieutenants.
‘Yeah, I had been involved in 63 in-a-row, I think. But it’s gone now. I have to start from scratch,’ the affable Rock smiled at Dublin’s All-Ireland final press evening in Parnell Park. ‘I suppose that record was eventually going to go at some stage. It was nice that it lasted for that long.
‘Every player wants to play every game. You don’t like being rested, especially for Championship games in Croke Park. But for the morale of the whole squad, it was great that some guys got to get valuable game-time. It means guys are brimming with confidence and everyone very much feels a part of it.’
Rock’s almost flawless placekicking — he has an 83 per cent conversion rate with free-kicks in All-Ireland semi-finals and finals over the past three years, according to the Dontfoul blog — is one of the reasons that he has made himself indispensable to Gavin.
But even as one of the first names penned into the team-sheet by his manager, Rock knows not to take anything for granted. He has taken a circuitous route to claiming his multiple Celtic Crosses. Not only did he have to contend with the long shadow cast by his legendary father Barney, he also had injury problems early in his career and took time to earn the trust of his management team.
To give a sense of his unusual road to the top, he played for Leinster in the Railway Cup before even playing for Dublin. And in his first Championship start, against Wexford in Croke Park back in 2014, he was taken off at half-time.
‘That’s a good one, wasn’t it? Naturally, you are very disappointed because you feel like you are doing alright.
‘I think I made four or five points in the first half but Jim changed it up and that was it. You’ve just got to take it in your stride.
‘I didn’t start another game then until 2015, and I came off the bench for every remaining game of the championship in 2014. You’re still involved but you’re just not starting. You weren’t where you wanted to be at that stage yet, but thankfully it turned around in 2015,’ said Rock.
‘It has been all good since then. I probably didn’t think it would be this good, but it’s been enjoyable alright what we’ve done so far.’
Back when a younger Rock was trying to break into the Dublin side, Tyrone were still considered the benchmark. The forward remembers going to Championship games in Croke Park through the noughties when Mickey Harte’s side had their number.
‘Growing up as a kid, the vivid memories of my teenage years would have been those games against Tyrone. They were the benchmark, absolutely. The game in 2008 when it was raining, Joe McMahon got the goal. That’s what I remembered growing up, that they were a great team back then.
‘I’m sure all their current players will want to emulate those guys, which makes it a massive challenge for us.’
A challenge, though, that they are expected to surmount, especially if Rock maintains his high conversion rate for the big day.