Gavin will want top guns tested by Farney army
WE’RE hurtling towards an inevitable All-Ireland senior football final between Dublin and Kerry. And the Sam Maguire Cup is still very much Dublin’s to lose.
I haven’t seen anything that will unduly concern them in recent weeks and they’ll finish the season as champions again if they maximise the talent at their disposal and get the dynamic right on the big days that remain.
At Croke Park this evening, they’re the headline act and it’s only the Dubs who can match Coldplay or U2 for pulling power at GAA HQ.
I said it at the time and it still holds true — the narrow League final defeat against Kerry was a blessing in disguise for Dublin.
And they’ll look back on that game when they’re sitting with their feet up and basking in the warm afterglow of a third successive All-Ireland crown.
What will help Dublin this evening is that Monaghan will put it up to them, and provide the test that’s needed.
Monaghan need to produce, because this bunch hasn’t delivered at Croke Park. I’m sure it’s very much on Malachy O’Rourke’s to-do list.
I’m not for one minute suggesting that Monaghan will pull off the shock of the decade but it would be good for them, and Dublin, if they do produce a performance.
To do that, they’ll need the combined talents of Conor McManus, Jack McCarron, Conor McCarthy and the Hughes brothers, Darren and Kieran, reflecting on the scoreboard.
Still, I don’t suspect that Dublin manager Jim Gavin will have too many sleepless nights in August.
His squad appears reignited, refreshed and refocused. There’s only one thing on their minds — the three-in-a-row.
Gavin always talks about the process and insists that they’re not seeing the finish line — but it’s very much in their consciousness now.
Their run seems to be timed perfectly — and even better than 2016, when they seemed to go off the boil.
They could, and maybe should, have been caught by Mayo but they’re going a different way about it this year.
The new kids on the block — Con O’Callaghan and Eric Lowndes — have added an extra dimension and while Paul Mannion has been knocking around for a while, he’s never looked as sharp and focused as he is now.
Look, too, at what the increased level of competition for places is doing for some of the more established guys, like Bernard Brogan and Kevin McManamon.
When Dean Rock was blackcarded in the Leinster final, Brogan stepped in and put his hand up for a starting place.
And I haven’t even mentioned the guys who didn’t start or weren’t available that day — Paul Flynn, Michael Darragh Macauley, Eoghan O’Gara, Diarmuid Connolly and Jonny Cooper.
The internal dynamic of the Dublin squad is now akin to the Kilkenny hurlers in their pomp.
The only potential chink in their armour is possibly in defence.
Rory O’Carroll has been missed in one sense but Cooper has done very well at full-back.
When Cooper didn’t play against Kildare, Cian O’Sullivan had to perform a man-marking role, rather than his usual job, and that did seem to discommode Dublin a little.
But that’s nitpicking and perhaps a bigger job for Gavin is try- ing to keep all of his players happy.
However, if you’re on a winning streak, players understand the situation.
They’re professional in their approach and if they’re not in the starting line-up, they’re totally focused on the role they might have to play if introduced.
Lesser teams might have guys sitting on a bench who are not totally focused.
But Gavin has a plan in his head for every one of his subs and while he’s probably not keeping all of them happy, he can point out that if Dublin win the three-in-arow, well then everyone has an All-Ireland medal — and everyone’s a winner.
Gavin has used 27 players in this year’s Championship, due to suspensions, injuries and tactical tweaks. That’s a high number — and it sends out the message that almost every panel member is in the mix.
That’s how he’ll help to keep players happy and he has them champing at the bit ahead of tonight — and a likely semi-final with Tyrone.
As for Kerry, they’re even less tested than Dublin. Clare pushed them the hardest in a Munster semi-final, before they beat Cork by 11 points and Galway by eight, while playing in second gear.
The happiest guy after the Mayo-Roscommon draw will have been Kerry manager Éamonn Fitzmaurice but his team could badly do with a test before a Dublin final.
Dublin will have been tested by Monaghan and Tyrone and it’s a bit like days of yore for Kerry, when they had easy paths to AllIreland finals when Cork weren’t going well in Munster.
The more things change, it seems, the more they stay the same.