Organisation trumps genius in the pursuit of success

I AM still smiling at the absolute audacity of that point from Conor McManus last Sunday. He is a rare and gifted talent, one of the best strike forwards of his generation but he also reminds why there will be no fairytale All-Ireland win for Monaghan. If McManus (left) played for Dublin, even for all his gifts, he would never be allowed to take on a shot like that because the percentages involved would mitigate against such an attempt.

You can argue that attitude is draining ingenuity from the game but, while it is true that ordinary teams need to do extraordinary things to get over the line, extraordinary teams do the ordinary things so well that they don’t need to bring a magic box with them to replace their blueprint.

Jim Gavin’s champions-inwaiting will let the handbrake go today and ease their way gently through the gears to dispose of the challenge of Wicklow.

There is little we will learn and yet it is days like this which underpin Dublin’s greatness.

The line was often peddled that playing in such a weak Leinster Championship would leave Dublin vulnerable when it mattered at the business end of the All-Ireland series.

But the measure of Dublin’s mental strength and their discipline is that they will approach today with the same mind-set as an All-Ireland final.

There will no bells and whistles, no show-boating, no one seeking to impersonate McManus by kicking an impossible point.

Instead, they will do the right thing over and over on a relentless march that can only end in one place.