DREAMS OF THE TREBLE SPURRED US
JAMES MCCARTHY claims winning the three-in-a-row was a motivating factor for Dublin – despite his manager Jim Gavin insisting it was “never” talked about. Mccarthy believes making history as the first Dubs team to complete the treble since 1923 – and only the third team from the capital to ever do it – was a factor in getting over the line against Mayo on Sunday. “Of course it’s there, you can’t hide away from it,” said the Dubs midfielder, who was named man of the match in the Croke Park thriller. “You’ve got to accept what’s on the line. “The sooner you do that I think the better place you’ll be mentally to try and take it on. Of course it was a motivating factor, you’d be lying if you didn’t say it was.” Mccarthy, above left with Kevin Mcmanamon, added: “We always go for it. Win or lose at the end, we always say, ‘We are going to cut loose first’. “I hate the feeling – it’s happened me over the years – coming off the
bit,” the 27-year-old who had won Sam Maguire in 2011, 2013, 2015, 2016 before this year’s success . “We’ve massive hunger in our team as well. People don’t realise that. “Obviously they’re chasing their first All-ireland in so many years but when you get the first one it gives you belief, first of all. “It also makes you feel how good it is to do it so you do what you can to get there again and again. “We’re at that stage at the moment where we want to be the best team. We have that hunger as well, I think people maybe underestimate our bit of bite. “You don’t want to be known as the team that won just one or two but as one of the really great teams.” pitch when you think you should have done that or this. It’s a horrible feeling. “We didn’t play well in the first half and we said we’d have a crack at this - go at the game, attack them - and that made all the difference. “The two lads coming on, Diarmuid Connolly and Kevin Mcmanamon, they settled us down, we got on a bit of ball up front and took the pressure off the back line. That had a big bearing on us getting over the line.” Mccarthy has lived inside the goldfish bowl that is Dublin’s football set-up throughout this hugely successful seven-year period that has yielded five All-ireland titles. And that’s why he felt the talk of Mayo’s hunger to win this Championship was also a motivating factor for Dublin. “Yeah, probably a little