Gilroy admits he took eye off the ball in last season with Dubs

PAT GILROY has revealed how he blamed his own preoccupation with Donegal for Dublin’s loss to Mayo in the 2012 All-Ireland semi-final, his last match as the county’s senior football manager.

In an interview with former Dublin player Eamon Fennell for the county board’s official website, Gilroy described how he became “obsessed with making sure no-one caught us” that summer and had made several trips to watch Jim McGuinness’s team in the Ulster SFC.

He also described how he had tailored some of Dublin’s training sessions in the weeks before the Mayo match in order to drill his team in the specific tactical challenges Donegal posed that year.

“I felt I took my eye off the ball,” he admitted.

“Donegal were so strong and they were doing so much damage to teams, I had an eye on them and how I wanted us to play (against Donegal) and I didn’t spend enough time on Mayo.”

Dublin were defending All-Ireland champions but at one stage early in the second half of the All-Ireland semi-final, they trailed Mayo by ten points.

Gilroy noted that “the second half of the Mayo match that year was as good as that team played,” as Dublin brought the deficit back to just three points. “Ten points was too much of a lead to get back.”

He also cited the absence of Mickey Whelan, who had stepped down as the team’s trainer after the previous year’s All-Ireland success, as a factor in their preparation.

“I would blame myself very strongly for allowing them to get that ten-point lead,” he stressed.

“That’s one thing that Mickey would have been excellent on. He’d have been probing and asking more of them. I had spent a little bit too much time looking at Donegal. I saw them as the real danger that year.

“I was travelling up watching them in the Ulster Championship. I was watching every video I could get my hands on, to make sure we had enough things in our armoury.

“It’s something I would certainly hold my hand up on.”