Cullen: Dubs do have major advantage in Croke Park
PADDY CULLEN didn’t try to dress it up another way – Dublin have a distinct advantage over most other teams in Croke Park and are more “vulnerable” on the road against “reasonably strong teams”. The former Dublin goalkeeper, in Croke Park yesterday for the launch of the GAA’s new digital archive, admitted he could see why Donegal might submit a motion to Congress preventing any county from using Croke Park as a home match in the All-Ireland quarter-final series.
Dublin will play the neutral second round at headquarters but if the Donegal motion gets 60pc support, they’ll have to play their home match as probable Leinster champions in Parnell Park, unless they chose to move it out of the capital.
“I can see why,” he said of the Donegal motion. “That’s the first thing that struck me when they brought in that rule, Dublin are going to get two games in Croke Park. They’re
not going to play in Parnell Park so there’s another little chink.
“I think Dublin are vulnerable away from home because it’s always in their psyche. When you go down (the country), you’re out of your comfort zone. We used to be pushed. We had a good team when I was playing. We were really becoming kind of unbeatable in a way, I hate saying that, but to the Wexfords and teams like that, they should have been pushovers. But we’d be down in Dr Cullen Park and you’d be just fighting to get out of it.
“There is a definite advantage in Croker. Everybody knows it. The dogs in the street know it.”
Cullen says he had some of his faith in Gaelic football restored last Saturday night with the quality of Kerry’s one-point win over Dublin and feels the elimination of the backpass to the goalkeeper will help to further alleviate the defensive nature of so many games.
“I’d do it immediately because it is creating the extra man for this little circle they have at the back and if everyone marks everyone and they can’t put it back to the ‘keeper, they have to kick it or get rid of it.”
Would it isolate the position too much in that case? “No, it was redundant except for the ball coming in. It’s
part and parcel of it now. They did it in soccer, I know we shouldn’t be comparing but I played a lot of soccer myself so you just can’t pick it up but a lot of timewasting was eliminated. I just don’t think we need it in Gaelic football.
“That game on Saturday night epitomises the way it should be played. So, if the game is played the way it should be played, that’s what should happen.
Blueprint
“When Monaghan came out against Dublin, they didn’t play like the way they played on Sunday. They went forward and they started playing football and they beat Dublin. What is this thing about going backwards? But Saturday night tears up the backwards blueprint,” he predicted.
“That’s the way it should be played. Teams have been beaten at the weekend who were passing backwards. Fermanagh beat Kildare, which in any year is extraordinary.
“And I’m not saying anything about Fermanagh other than they beat Kildare. If you look at the statistics, just looking at the Kildare scores, they scored six points, meanwhile Man City scored six goals. Which match would you go to?
“There is something radically wrong there. There were other high-scoring games but the game is suffering, we all know that and we won’t go over it. There is a problem and the GAA know we have a problem. How we control it, you have to control the managers. I used to be one of them,” he laughed.
Cullen, who expects to see Diarmuid Connolly back before the summer and sees no issue with Stephen Cluxton missing the first three games of the League as he takes an extended break, feels there is relevance to the weekend result.
“Kerry have been down long enough, they’ve been nibbling away but they’ve got a young team now, and they did it before some years back, I remember it well, going back to my own time, when they can just spring a team. Let’s hope they sprung it too early!
“But I think they have the makings of a Championship team. If you look at what’s left in the pot; I’d be looking at Dublin, Kerry, Mayo and if you step outside of that you’re really looking. I was disappointed to see Donegal being beaten. People say it’s the League and it doesn’t matter, (but) it does matter. All the teams, psychologically, it does matter to them.”