WE HAVE MASSIVE RESPECT FOR MAYO
Dubs full of praise for arch-rivals
SHADES OF September 2011 and the high drama of a late, late free to secure the All-Ireland title and a treasured slice of history.
Back then, Stephen Cluxton was beckoned from his goalkeeping post, jogging up the field to stand over the match-defining kick, Kieran Donaghy jawing him just to further test his nerves.
The image of the Kerry full-forward at full stretch in front of him as the ball curled through the posts became an iconic image as the dam burst on 16 years of being second best, to Kerry and a whole lot more.
And so Dublin’s golden era has come to be bookmarked by two glorious shots fired when the stakes were highest.
This time, Dublin trusted Dean Rock with the dead ball, far more than a free-kick specialist after nailing four points from play. Instead of into the Hill 16 end, he faces a kick into the Davin Stand, 40 metres or so to flight the ball over the bar.
Just as he sets off on his run, a Mayo player jogs close to him trying to make his eyeline.
James McCarthy suggested afterwards that a GPS tracker landed somewhere in Rock’s vicinity as a further distraction. Right at this moment, the clocking is ticking into the 77th minute with the scoreline 1-16 apiece. Now that’s pressure. Rock nails it and Dublin are champions, the first three-in-a row since Kerry 1984-86.
‘I just struck it well and the rest is history now,’ said the son of Barney, a Hill 16 darling and expert free-taker himself.
Cluxton is asked afterwards if any part of him was hoping for the call up the field.
‘Dean’s an accomplished freetaker,’ he replied. ‘I’d every faith in him to kick it over.’
James McCarthy gives his own view.
‘They were trying every trick in the book. I think it was a GPS someone threw at him? But look, it doesn’t matter now. He kicked it.’ And with it, put this Dublin team on a pedestal.
And also Cluxton, who not only set the record for Championship appearances this summer with 91, but became the first man to captain his county four times to the summit.
He knows what it’s like to kick a winning free at the end of a final.
‘I think there was a little bit of a difference. There was still more time to play on the free today, so probably a little more to lose if he had kicked it wide and given Mayo an opportunity to come back up the pitch.’
It’s worth remembering the endgame of the National League final when Rock’s attempt at an equaliser, deep in injury-time, revolved around a long-range free that came off the right upright facing into Hill 16 – the very same post that Mayo free-taker Cillian O’Connor hit with the game level in the first minute of added time.
‘I have unbelievable respect for the amount of practice he does,’ said Kevin McManamon afterwards.
‘I don’t think I would have wanted anyone else in that position with the game on the line and a minute to go.
‘He’s just a legend with the amount of practice he does and how cool he is under pressure and I’m delighted.
‘He took a big hit in the League final against Kerry. He took that on his own shoulders and it hit him pretty hard, so it’s a nice little twist that he got the winner today.
‘He’s an absolute legend, so fair play to him.’
Cluxton is also a true-blue legend. He is part of an elite crew of Dublin players who now hold five All-Ireland medals, all won since his free-kick six Septembers ago.
Famously private and inscrutable, he mulled over the question as to whether the fruitless decade prior to that makes this all the more fulfilling.
‘Putting on the jersey, you appreciate every day you get to do that. It’s not so much victories and defeat... [it’s the]players I hold in high regard. Those that don’t have All-Ireland medals, I still hold them in high regard. I’ve learned a lot from them. I’ve learned a lot from playing with different players.
‘I’m just holding on to my jersey. I have to chat with this man here [Jim Gavin], see if he wants me for next year.
‘Once January comes around I’m going to be battling against another goalkeeper to try and win the jersey. That’s just the way it is.’
In keeping with his own understated style, Gavin refused to be drawn on the significance of Dublin’s achievement.
‘My focus and the management
‘It’s the players that I hold in high regard’
team’s focus was on 2017. What’s going on in the past is in the past. We never reference it – never.’
Eoghan O’Gara with his fingers in Colm Boyle’s face, and Dublin forwards wrestling with Mayo defenders as David Clarke took the resultant kick-out from Rock’s free at the end, are images that Dublin won’t want to dwell on.
Gavin responded to the latter with: ‘There’s a lot on the line, a lot at stake.
‘It was happening at both ends and that’s just the way it is when you have two really well-matched teams going hard at it.’
And in fairness to the pair, they otherwise served up another enthralling, bruising affair, full of guts and character and hearton-sleeve passion. McManamon summed it up well.
‘I’ve got absolute massive, massive respect for the Mayo team. They’ve got some legends, big men and big leaders and their resilience can’t be questioned.
‘The only way we can respect them is by giving them every single thing that we have and we gave them everything we had today – everything.’
Dublin selector Declan Darcy admitted it could so easily have fallen Mayo’s way.
‘There’s always tight, titanic battles between ourselves and Mayo and, again, there was nothing between us – we had the little bit of luck at the end of the day to hold out and have the score that won it. Cillian took that free at the end and he could have easily put that over.
‘There’s fine lines at this level of competition.’
Did he feel that it was a good performance by the champions?
‘Your gut telling you at the minute? No, but then sport is sport. You can have a good performance plenty of times and not win.
‘The emotions there at the end, we could have lost it, could have won it. You’re kind of thinking, this is gone and then it’s back. It’s relief at the end.
‘The resilience of Mayo has been highlighted a lot, but the resilience of our lads has, in fairness, been great too. Last year everyone said there was no way you could get another title and the hunger piece was questioned.’
A knee injury to Jack McCaffrey was one of the few drawbacks to the day for Dublin.
McCarthy said there is no reason why Mayo can’t bounce back from yet another final defeat, a fourth since 2012.
‘There’s an All-Ireland in them if they keep trying, they can have their day.’
On being one of those Dublin players with five All-Irelands, McCarthy described the remarkable journey.
‘Just amazing. The first one was huge. It gives you that bit of belief and gives you a bit of insatiable hunger to win more. But I’m just lucky to be around at a time when these players come together.
‘We’re very close. That’s the biggest thing for us.
‘And it means that when it comes down to the line, you look at each other and drive through and pull it out of the bag.’
‘We’re very close. That’s the biggest thing for us’