DUBLIN TRAIN’S NOT FOR HALTING
TOMAS O SE fears Dublin have stolen too great a march to be stopped in their five-in-a-row bid.
Jim Gavin’s side became just the sixth team in GAA history to win four successive All-ireland senior titles last month (above) and no one has ever done five.
The Kerry footballers in 1982 and Kilkenny hurlers in 2010 came closest having fallen short in the final.
Dublin completed the four-in-a-row with the minimum of fuss and five-time All-ireland winner O Se (inset) wonders who can bridge the gap. He’s not optimistic about his native Kerry’s chances in 2019.
“The thing about the five-in-a-row for me is that there’s nobody stepping up,” he said. “When I say stepping up, outside of Mayo – who a lot of people are saying now have missed their chance – there isn’t anyone really coming close to the Dubs the last couple of years.
“Kerry, possibly. But are Kerry in a position from what we’ve seen this year? No. I think Dublin are that bit ahead of everybody at the moment. The five-in-a-row, it’s not an impossibility.
“But it’s a dangerous thing, nobody has done it. The great Kilkenny team, the great Kerry team. It’s very hard. A pressure comes with it.
“They’re such a focused group, I don’t think the talk will bother them. I don’t think the talk outside bothered them this year and I think it’s up to the other teams to step up. Are they capable of stepping up? I’m not too sure to be honest with you.”
However, Kerry and Mayo, arguably the two counties most likely to topple Dublin, have appointed new managers in Peter Keane and James Horan respectively, moves which O Se is enthused by.
“I think a lot of guys were eager to see Peter Keane getting a chance. The fact that he’s been so successful at minor level, he’s carried a lot of those players through,” he said.
“I’d be happy enough with it. I think nowadays it’s also the fellas you surround yourself with. I think that’s just as important.
“It’s very important obviously to get the manager right but you have to surround yourself with the right fellas and I think the package he’s brought in there is as good as you can get.”
O Se described Horan’s
Mayo return as “exciting”.
The RTE pundit added: “If anyone can get something out of them, he can.
“I’d be hopeful to see that there’s a couple of young lads coming through as well.
“Everybody says that this Mayo doesn’t have the bottle to get across the line or whatever, I don’t buy into that at all.
“I think they had plenty of bottle. I just don’t think they had forwards to finish it off. I think they had Dublin on the platter every time, but just to finish it off.
“So I was delighted to see Horan going in there actually.
“He has a good bond with that team and he’d know more about Mayo football than we would and he knows the club scene a lot more because he’s been managing the last couple of years.
“So I’d say he has been thinking about it long and hard. The fact that he’s in there, I wouldn’t write Mayo off at all.”