CLAMPING DOWN
Dublin put defence right at heart of their Championship plans
DUBLIN should not be hood-winked into believing that they have resolved the defensive frailties which derailed them last season.
That is the stark warning issued by one of their own, All-Ireland winner Barry Cahill, who believes the assumption that Dublin have absorbed the painful lessons of last summer may be premature.
As Championship 2015 prepares for its proper lift- off at the weekend, once more it has been hyped as Dublin’s to lose — the three-in-arow League winners are the 6/4 red-hot favourites to win a third Sam Maguire in five years and stake an early claim to the ‘Team of the Decade’ gong.
But their price at the beginning of last year’s Championship when they were chasing down history by becoming just the second team ever to put back-to-back League a nd Championship doubles together was even shorter, before Donegal bailed out the market by smashing the Dublin defence.
It is precisely because of their semi-final defeat last year, and the when they gave up 11 goals and managed just three shut-outs.
How Gavin has achieved change has been well documented — in part down to playing ultra-defensive teams in Derry and Tyrone who were shot shy — but in the main to a collective defensive structure that closed the huge hole down their spine which Donegal exploited last year.
On the face of it, Dublin have made the adjustments needed, both in terms of strategy and personnel — the key switch likely to be Cian O’Sullivan’s relocation at centre-back — but against the top teams, they still have to be stress tested.
Even in the League final mauling of Cork last month, the two goals scored by an outclassed team, and the opportunities spurned by Brian Hurley and Daniel Goulding served as a reminder that Dublin have not rid themselves of the habit of giving up too many goal chances.
Despite dominating that game against Cork, they still gave up four goal chances and conceded two. ‘If you look at the last two All-Ireland semi-finals Dublin have played in, they have conceded six goals. So that would be an area of concern against teams who play a two-man full-forward line, it does leave Dublin a small bit exposed,’ suggests Cahill.
Dublin’s vulnerability is most likely to emerge in the latter stages of the All-Ireland series against possibly stronger teams who may have the courage to go after the Championship favourites, which Dublin are likely to meet with a more orthodox defensive structure. ‘The guys who play in the full-back line are very good, but they do go man-to-man and play a high line. So one slip, and the other team could be in,’ warns Cahill.
Dublin’s other potential weakness is hardly new. While most teams can hardly lean on their League stats for comfort, Dublin have little choice as they are not likely to meet top-tier opposition until either Cork or Kerry stand in their way in the last eight in August.
In the lack of a meaningful challenge in Leinster, Gavin will have to trust that his team does not get infected with complacency and hope the defensive structure that worked in a stress-free League campaign is fit for purpose when it receives i ts next test in l ate summer.
‘Complacency is one [issue], while possibly also being undercooked coming into August for an All-Ireland quarter-final or semi-final.
‘That was slightly the case last year going into the Donegal game,’ concedes Cahill, who will play in a ‘GAA Open’ charity match for the Rest of Ireland v Ulster in Newcastle on Monday week to coincide with the Irish Open golf championship.
Meanwhile, Cahill also believes that one rule change could rid the game of its defensive mind-set.
‘I’d like to see two points for a score outside of the ‘45’ because there are a number of players who are well capable of kicking longrange points like that and it is one way of getting around the blanket defence.’