ROCK ON A ROLL
Dean on the verge of 60th game in a row for Dublin
DEAN ROCK will hit a remarkable appearance milestone if he appears in Dublin’s opening defence of their Leinster and All-ireland titles next month.
The Leinster quarter-final against Offaly or Wicklow on the weekend of May 26/27 will be his 60th consecutive appearance in League or Championship for the Dubs, a run stretching back to the start of the 2014 Championship.
In those 59 previous outings, he has started 52 and come off the bench in the other seven.
Four of those sub appearances came in the 2014 Championship and it was from the outset of 2015 that his Dublin career really began in earnest.
Since then he’s started every Championship game and has been introduced in three League matches – against Cork and Donegal in 2016 and Donegal once again this year.
Even captain Stephen Cluxton hasn’t featured quite as regularly for Dublin over that time period, underlining just how much weight manager Jim Gavin (inset) has placed on Rock’s presence on the field.
The four-time All-ireland winner naturally takes great satisfaction in the run, with the 2014 League final win over Derry the last time he hasn’t featured.
“I want to play every game I possibly get a chance to,” said Rock, speaking at Carton House at the launch of the 2018 AIG
Cups and Shields season and the
AIG Irish Close Championship.
“Before 2013 there were games that I thought I should have been playing in and I wasn’t in. Any opportunity that I possibly get I’m going to try to play for Dublin, if my form is good and if Jim wants to pick me.
“I take great pride in my recovery and what I do off the field so I certainly put myself in a position to train at every opportunity and play games at every opportunity.
“That’s the most enjoyable thing about Gaelic football, playing the games, and especially putting on a Dublin jersey and going out in front of what amount of thousand people in Croke Park, or if it’s going down to Castlebar, or Killarney, whatever the case may be.
“So it’s something that I am proud of yeah, and long may it continue.
All told, it’s not bad going for a player who was deemed surplus to requirements by Gavin’s predecessor Pat Gilroy six years ago, going from there to ever-present and kicking the winning point as Dublin clinched three-in-a-row.
“There are always make-or-break moments in your career. I was let go from the Dublin senior panel in 2012.
“That was the time I could have just thrown up the boots and said, ‘Ah, it’s not for me.’ But I went back and trained really hard under Paul Curran and managed to win a county championship that year.
“Once the All-ireland series was finished, I was then with Jim in 2013. Never really looked back since then.
“You know you really just gotta knuckle down in those tough times. Thankfully I did. I’ve had a good career to date.”