Rivals should be careful what they wish for – champions could be even better without Jim
Next man into the capital’s bootroom must convince Cluxton to stay between the posts
DUBLIN won’t be the same team without Jim Gavin. They might be even better. There’s every chance Gavin’s likely replacement Dessie Farrell is coming at the ideal time for the team who’ve dominated Gaelic football for the past five years.
That dominance has resembled Manchester United’s long spell at the top of English football. So could Gavin’s departure, like that of Alex Ferguson from Old Trafford, herald the end of a golden era? Probably not. A better parallel might be with what happened when Bill Shankly stepped down from the Liverpool job in 1974 after steering the club to three league titles, two FA Cups and a UEFA Cup. How could his successor Bob Paisley hope to follow that?
With six league titles and three European
Cups was how. Liverpool had what Manchester United didn’t have when Ferguson left, a ready-made replacement from within the club.
That’s what Dublin have now in Farrell whose managerial CV is strikingly similar to Gavin’s when the Round Tower, Clondalkin man was appointed to succeed Pat Gilroy. Gavin had managed the Dubs to two All-Ireland U-21 crowns while Farrell’s teams have secured two U-21 titles and one at minor level. Those U-21 panels included ten of Dublin’s starters in this year’s All-Ireland final replay so the odds on a pretty seamless transition from Gavin to Farrell appear pretty good. In the words of The Who, “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss”.
Things won’t be exactly the same but this could work to Dublin’s advantage. In the past couple of seasons there’d been a sense that the biggest danger to the champions might be a difficulty in maintaining interest given their overwhelming superiority in most matches.
The atypical sloppiness which brought them to the brink of defeat in this year’s drawn final may well have had its roots in complacency. But the emergence of Kerry as genuine challengers seemed to serve as a wake-up call in the replay and it’s unlikely Dublin will underestimate the Kingdom again.
Now the appointment of Farrell would provide a further safeguard against any thoughts of going through the motions. Even Dublin’s biggest stars will have to prove themselves all over again.
We sometimes hear that a manager has inherited a “poisoned chalice”. Farrell, on the other hand, could inherit one brimming with champagne. Ten of the Dublin starting 15 against Kerry were 26 or under and only one of the other five players was over 30.
There’s no reason why the performance levels of these stars should drop over the next couple of years but if they do Dublin are blessed with extraordinary reserve strength.
Cormac Costello continues to hover on the edge of a major breakthrough, while Paddy Small, Darren Gavin, Eric Lowndes, Andrew McGowan and Seán Bugler are all knocking on the door.
The displays of the Basquel brothers, Ryan and Colm, in the club championship have strengthened their case for
game-time and U-20 Footballer of the Year Ciarán Archer looks an immensely exciting prospect.
That Dublin have a second string good enough to beat most teams in the country is a very useful motivational tool for a new manager. You’d imagine the mood of the camp going into 2020 will be one of excitement.
Perhaps there is one indispensable Dublin player. There’s been speculation that Stephen Cluxton may join
Gavin in retirement but, while the veteran ’keeper can’t last forever and Evan Comerford is a promising deputy, it now seems imperative for Dublin to hold on to their oldest star.
The loss of either Gavin or Cluxton can be borne yet the loss of both might be a disruption too far. Farrell’s most immediately pressing task, should he get the job, may be to have a serious and persuasive conversation with the greatest goalkeeper of all time.
Some will feel Gavin’s resignation renders Dublin slightly vulnerable. The bookies responded by lengthening Dublin’s odds for next year’s All-Ireland and shortening Kerry’s. Yet the former are still an unbackable 4/6 with only Donegal among the other counties seen as having any chance at all.
That seems right. Predictions that a new era of Kingdom glory was nigh seemed a bit previous after the superiority of Dublin in the final replay. Kerry are good but probably not yet as good as the Mayo teams of 2016 and 2017 and predictions of them dethroning the Dubs rely a lot on the expectation of David Clifford doing incredible things.
Substance
Two years in a row Donegal have looked superb in Ulster before seeming short of substance after that. Mayo’s key players look like they’ve gone on too long. So does Tyrone’s manager. Galway under Pádraic Joyce and Kildare under Jack O’Connor will be interesting but, like Cork’s crop of brilliant youngsters, are an awful long way behind Kerry, let alone Dublin.
Given the inevitability of Dublin wins in recent years, it’s natural their rivals welcome any injection of chance into the process. But it would take a bad manager not to capitalise on the resources available to a Dublin boss. Gavin may be gone but the whole football industrial complex underpinning the metropolitan project is intact. We don’t know how Farrell will adjust to senior level. But he is not a bad manager. He may even turn out to be a great one. It could be we ain’t seen nothin’ yet.
Gavin may be gone but the whole football industrial complex underpinning the metropolitan project remains intact