Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Portlaoise report: Dubs (and Carlow) must do better..
AFTER what I saw on Saturday evening in Portlaoise, I’ll be amazed if Dublin go on to win three-in-a-row.
At no time since Jim Gavin has taken charge have I seen a more disorganised, error-ridden performance. And saying that it’s only Carlow and it’s their first game out doesn’t wash because that’s never been the modus operandi under Gavin. Dublin don’t do first or second gear. So you’d wonder about the mindset of some of the Dublin players and no one summed that up more than Diarmuid Connolly. He’s a player that I’ve hugely admired, a brilliant footballer with the most incredible skill and a vital cog in the Dublin wheel. But when you see him doing what he did against a side like Carlow, with all due respect, when the game was won and all that was at stake was a sideline ball, you really have to wonder. I would say that the three players having a go at him shouldn’t go unchecked either, and I doubt if they would have done it to any other player, but Connolly looked to me like a player that was fed up with football. It was apparent even in the way he played throughout the game. I saw it in other Dublin players too. Yes, it’s only one game but I haven’t seen that under this regime before. What Connolly did was wrong and not suprisingly he has been proposed for a 12 week ban by the CCCC. The linesman and referee clearly bottled the decision. Why didn’t Ciaran Branagan react along with referee Sean Hurson and come to the obvious decision that this was a red card offence? Hurson had a dreadful match and made some very harsh decisions against Carlow. Brendan Murphy’s first yellow was never a booking and while he should have had the good sense not to get involved with Cooper for the second one, it was notable how the other linesman and then Hurson made a decision on that occasion. In terms of effort I wouldn’t fault Carlow but I was disappointed at how they went about things. Turlough O’brien got plenty of plaudits in the build-up to the game and had spoken at length about pundits being negative, but Carlow had one shot at the Dubs and they prepared for two weeks to essentially keep the score down. This is the same team that hit 2-17 against Wexford with some fine attacking football yet they had just 0-7 registered after 75 minutes on Saturday against a Dublin team that was off its game. This post-match comment from O’brien baffled me: “I hope today gives other Leinster counties that would be considerably higher ranked than Carlow belief that they would rise to the challenge when they do meet Dublin.” I don’t believe Carlow rose to any challenge last Saturday. They raised the white flag by reducing it to a damage limitation exercise. It didn’t serve Carlow football or their players well. Why not have a cut at it? Dublin had six changes and a bit of inexperience and rustiness. It’s easy to say afterwards, but if O’brien was told beforehand that his side would score just 0-3 from play, surely he would have been disgusted. For Dublin, wear and tear appears to be taking its toll and they looked a pale shadow of what they were a couple of years ago. That’s natural and nothing to be ashamed of and, if they get everyone fit and available, they will still be the team to beat. But they’re now more beatable than at any time in the last five years and that gives hope to others.