BETWEEN A AND A HARD PLACE Dean: I love the challenge of facing a tight defence
NFL DIV. 1 DONEGAL v DUBLIN
Two weeks ago the All-star attacker swooped at the death to deny Tyrone, securing a draw in a painfully low scoring game.
Back-to-back All-ireland winning Dubs boss Jim Gavin noted pointedly afterwards that while Tyrone like to play defensively – ‘we don’t’.
But there could be more of the same coming today in Donegal as host boss Rory Gallagher has admitted, ‘any team that plays Dublin ends up defending quite a bit’.
It’s hardly the ideal scenario for an attacker like Rock but he claims he enjoys it as Dublin gun for five League titles on the trot.
Rock said: “It is that challenge of breaking down the system that I enjoy.
“We’re all intelligent guys and footballers and we enjoy a challenge in teasing out how best to beat an opposition. That’s what we do.
“There is only so much work we can do off the field, the most exciting thing always is getting out on the field and putting into practice what you’ve talked about in training.
“That is the exciting part for us – going out and actually playing and trying to beat the system. That’s the reason why I enjoy it anyway.”
Donegal famously smothered Dublin’s attack with a blanket defence approach in the 2011 Championship and were only just beaten.
And the Tir Chonaill men actually overcame the Dubs with a similar strategy in 2014, the last time Dublin lost in the Championship.
Dublin are much better at dealing with such systems now though and haven’t lost a League or Championship game in almost two years despite regularly facing defensive set-ups.
Rock said: “We are used to it at this stage. We just have to stick to the process that we know as a team.
“Once everybody buys into it we will always have opportunities to score and opportunities to win a game.
“It’s up to us to execute the game plan when we hit the field and to execute our skills properly.”
Dublin showed all their patience against Tyrone to conjure a string of late scores – including Rock’s leveller from a long range free.
“I had no doubt in my ability that I was going to kick it over the bar. It is just down to practice and I’ve put the hours in.
“It’s nice to kick a free, especially when you are a point down with not many minutes to go because it’s a lot easier to put the ball over when it’s a drawn game or when you’re a point in front. But when you’re a point down, and it’s to draw the game, it’s always a bit more difficult. It’s nice for the confidence.”
As for Donegal, he expects to come up against a new look side, with the 2012 All-ireland winners experiencing a spate of retirements since last summer.
Rock said: “They are a team in transition, with new players that we wouldn’t have come across yet.
“We always look forward to going on the road.”