Ballymun to kick on against Vincent’s

LOOKING at how the cream of Ballymun Kickhams have become indispensable to Jim Gavin’s Dublin team, playing instrumental roles in the threein-a-row, it’s hard to understand how the club hasn’t kicked on since going all the way to St Patrick’s Day back in 2013. Dean Rock’s place-kicking skills under pressure are arguably the best in the country; James McCarthy has blossomed as the midfielder everybody knew he could be; John Small is always adding to his reputation as a quality man-marker and Philly McMahon has developed into a real leader. But then, it’s arguably because of their success with Dublin that Ballymun have found it hard to hit the heights in county championship when so many star men in the team have already had an exhausting season, both mentally and physically. Paddy Andrews of St Brigid’s gave a nice insight into just that when describing how his club targeted Kickhams at the quarter-final stage. ‘We went out looking for a fast start to catch them on the hop. It was the first game after the Dublin lads coming back. ‘Obviously it was going to affect them more than us — I was the only Dublin player [at Brigid’s]; I think they had four or five. ‘But they showed their maturity as a team; they just strangled the game without doing anything spectacular. It was that experience and know-how and that’s where the guys come in, James and Philly and Smally. They’ve real leadership there and experience and they’ve gotten better from that performance, as you’d expect, a very strong performance against [Kilmacud] Crokes. ‘It’s a really tight one to call. Ballymun have a couple to key guys who are under pressure to get back in. I think they might nick it but then you wouldn’t be surprised because of the experience that Vincent’s have. ‘Similar to Ballymun they’re very controlled. They’re not going to panic.’ He couldn’t have called it better. Given how Dublin teams have performed in Leinster and the All-Ireland series, the stakes are so high here.

Verdict: Ballymun Kickhams.