Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Eoin emerges as Dublin hero but for others it may be end..
ANOTHER unlikely hero emerged in a five-in-a-row final, and in ways Eoin Murchan’s goal eclipsed Seamus Darby’s in 1982. For a young fella who didn’t start the last day and had never even scored for Dublin before to pop up like that and score a sensational goal – with the smallest man on the field being chased by the biggest in David Moran – was incredible. He changed the course of history.
I’ve managed Eoin at club level and he’s not renowned for that but he’s always had a great burst of pace and has grown in confidence over the 12-18 months. He wouldn’t have been seen as a threat by Kerry and yet he turned out to be the game-changer.
The goal gave Dublin a stranglehold and they never let go. The die was effectively cast.
Fittingly, this was no cakewalk to five-in-a-row and Kerry had done well to get back into it having struggled for 15 minutes. But after contributing to one of the greatest halves of football we’ve ever seen, they could only score 0-5 in the second half, when Dublin’s game management was outstanding.
Some who did well the last time, the likes of Jack Mccaffrey, Dean Rock and Brian Howard, were more peripheral and others stepped up – Ciaran Kilkenny in particular, while I thought Mick Fitzsimons was immense.
Kerry performed well on the whole but I was surprised they took so long to put Tommy Walsh in. They were lumping in high balls early on that came straight back out.
I felt that Kerry needed to throw a curveball at Dublin from the off. It was a huge decision to hold him back and assume he was going to have the same effect again.
What about the history that Dublin have created? For so long we struggled to even reach a final, and I was part of that, never mind win five-in-a-row and there was a certain finality to what they achieved on Saturday. Winning a sixth next year would be a massive ask.
I watched Stephen Cluxton post-match and I couldn’t help thinking that it was a long goodbye. He may well be one of a spate of retirements in the coming months.
There was an outpouring of emotion from the Dublin players that we haven’t seen before and there will be a natural changing of the guard now.
And perhaps not just on the pitch. Jim Gavin has created history and did so by cleverly ticking the team over year on year – there were only six starting survivors from the 2013 final on
Saturday.
He doesn’t owe Dublin anything and it’ll be his decision, but it certainly wouldn’t shock me if he stepped away now.