Rock of ages: Dean enhancing the legacy of proud dad Barney

BARNEY ROCK will forever be associated with the Dublin team of the 1980s. Darling of the Hill. Free-taker supreme. A natural born goalscorer and one of the poster boys of the 1983 AllIreland triumph against Galway, against the odds, and with just 12 men. And a gentleman to boot.

A legacy that is secure decades later. So where does that leave Dean? Already, at 28, he has four All-Irelands to his father’s cherished medal. Five Leinster titles to his father’s four. Five National Leagues compared to just one.

Anyone who would quibble with his status as the best free-taker in Ireland need just look back to the winning kick against Mayo in last year’s All-Ireland final.

Not bad for a player cut from the senior panel under Pat Gilroy in 2012 in the build-up to the Championship.

It’s clear that even the player himself struggles at times to process just what he has achieved this past five years in the Jim Gavin era. And that’s before a remarkable personal run of 59 consecutive appearances in League and Championship since the start of the 2014 summer — only seven of which he featured off the bench and not as part of the starting 15. But more of that anon. ‘You don’t really reflect too much,’ he says. ‘In the winter months you reflect on your accomplishments that year, see where you can improve and get better the following year. I’ve won more than what he has won. He was unfortunate in that they came up against the great Kerry team of the ’80s, lost two All-Ireland finals.

‘Where he fell short in his career, he likes to pass on some valuable information so I don’t fall short in mine. He’s delighted what I’ve achieved. I’m sure he wouldn’t swap it in any way. I know he’s very proud of my achievements and the achievements of Dublin.’

And now there’s a father-son act in Ballymun Kickhams where Barney has taken on a backroom team role and is directly involved with Dean’s team for the first time.

Yet it’s worth remembering how the latter’s county career could so easily have gone a different way after being cut from the Dublin squad in 2012. Nothing then seemed written in the stars, with the senior team’s All-Ireland defence ending in a traumatic defeat by Mayo after which Gilroy and his management team stepped down. ‘There are always make-or-break moments in your career. I was let go from the Dublin senior panel in 2012. That was the time I could have just thrown up the boots and said, “Ah, it’s not for me.” But I went back and trained really hard under Paul Curran and managed to win a county championship that year. Once the All-Ireland series was finished, I was then with Jim [Gavin] in 2013. I haven’t really looked back since then. ‘Yeah, certainly, there were tough times in your career as a teenager and in your early 20s; you know you really just gotta knuckle down in those tough times. Thankfully I did.

‘I think that’s the advice that you would give to younger guys or guys on the minor team that might think it’s a bit too far of a step to break into the senior panel. It’s just there for everyone to achieve if you are willing to put in the work and willing to be mentally strong through those tough times.’

So what prompted the transformation in his game?

‘I obviously would have assessed my weaknesses. But certainly I would have carried on my strengths and what I was good at so for me it was my free-taking and my scoring from play. But there were things I needed to work on in terms of my own physical strength and my work off the ball — both attacking and defensively. So I was honest and frank with myself, and I used Paul Curran [Kickhams’ manager] pretty well — I got some information off him. Through listening to him and doing little bits with him, it helped to transform my own game and I’m obviously very thankful to him for that.

‘As a kid I probably over-thought football a little bit too much and I suppose he kind of got me to really enjoy playing Gaelic football. Obviously growing up you have high expectations of yourself and with your dad playing a long period of his time with Dublin, you obviously want to emulate him. So when it’s not happening for you initially, maybe you are starting to doubt yourself and try a bit too hard.

‘So it’s just that little enjoyment factor and I really enjoyed going back to the club that year in 2012.’

If that was a setback, he never doubted he would emulate his father and wear the senior jersey again, whatever about the unprecedented level of success. ‘I would have pictured these days as a kid throughout my whole life, so I certainly would have thought it was capable [of happening]… because even through those tough times at the end of that year, I had mentally steeled myself that I knew that I was going to play with Dublin eventually.’

Gavin has been his manager going back to Under 21 level in 2010 and he laughs when he says that he hopes the relationship lasts until around 2030.

‘If I can play for Dublin until I’m 40 [then] I’ll play for Dublin until I’m 40! If Jim is there until I’m 40, great, but nobody knows what’s going to really happen, what’s around the corner, what sort of plans Jim has.

‘Jim is very honest with the group. If the management aren’t doing the things that players want, he’d be happy enough to step away from the group because he’s only serving the county of Dublin and doing the best that he can do. As players, we’re delighted that Jim and his management team are there and anything we ask for we get. The players obviously drive those standards in training as well. Jim’s record speaks for itself.’

Dean Rock and Eoghan O’Donnell were at GUI National Headquarters to mark the commencement of the 2018 AIG Cups & Shields season, where AIG revealed details of their ‘AIG Golfer Anniversary Sale’. For more details see www.aig.ie/golf