Gavin knows he doesn’t need to panic... for now!
‘Gavin must show his trust in Comerford’
THIS is not exactly uncharted territory. Dublin have been here before under Jim Gavin. In the spring of 2015, he took the Dubs down to Kerry for the third game of their Allianz League campaign. They went home that night, mulling over their second match of the new season.
There were differences. Dublin were the hunters, rather than the hunted that year after Éamonn Fitzmaurice’s Kingdom had won an All-Ireland title against the head the previous September. There were some question marks about Gavin and his players back then following the shock to the system delivered by Donegal the previous August. Of course, none of it mattered. Dublin ended the spring as League champions, their third title in a row on Gavin’s watch, and went on to win Sam Maguire later that summer.
There is one obvious similarity between Dublin’s early season jitters in 2015 and now. Stephen Cluxton has been marked absent. When they travelled to Fitzgerald Stadium four years ago, Kerry got into Sean Currie’s head by pressing him on his kick-outs.
In the same way, last Saturday night in Austin Stack Park, in the classic conjured up by these two teams, the young Kingdom side also pressed Evan Comerford on his retarts and managed to spook him.
Gavin isn’t exactly forthcoming with information from inside his camp, so nobody knows if his captain will be back for Mayo’s visit to Croke Park in a fortnight’s time. But it is clear from the past few weeks that, even though he will be 38 on his next birthday, Cluxton remains Dublin’s most important player. He is central to everything and may hold the key as to whether this special group of players can achieve GAA immortality by claiming five All-Ireland titles in a row.
Last summer, when Comerford was parachuted into the goalkeeping spot after Cluxton got injured in the Leinster final, former Donegal manager Jim McGuinness made the point that it robbed Dublin of their most potent weapon.
‘He’s the best player that has ever played the game, in that position, there’s no doubt about that,’ McGuinness said at the time. ‘I always make the point that when you are going to play Dublin, the first problem that you have to solve is Stephen Cluxton.
‘That is the very first problem and that is a very unique situation in team sport, where the goalkeeper is the guy you’ve got to have the biggest plan for. It’s normally the full-forward, the centreforward or the midfield. But with Dublin, Cluxton’s the first conundrum.’
Cluxton isn’t going to be around forever and there is quite a bit expected of Comerford within the capital. The Ballymun man impressed for the Dublin side that won the last Under-21 All-Ireland championship and he has been a diligent and meticulous understudy to Cluxton. But the problem for him, and anyone else who wants to step into his shoes, is that he is replacing a bona fide legend — and arguably the most influential Gaelic footballer that has played the game.
That comparison dogged Comerford in Tralee. With each small mistake, or error, Dublin supporters would have thought Cluxton would have taken another option. Team selection didn’t help the slight-of-frame Comerford — who resembles a whippet of a cornerforward — as there was an absence of imposing figures in the Dubs’ full-back line.
It was a clear Kerry tactic to exploit Dublin’s vulnerability under the high ball on the edge of the square — as Tom O’Sullivan repeatedly did with his long, raking bombs into Paul Geaney. Without the presence of Cluxton, the full-back line looked even more exposed.
And yet, Gavin is in a quandary. He needs to blood Comerford and show that he trusts him. The type of character that Cluxton is, he will simply decide one morning that he doesn’t want to be a county player anymore. That day is fast approaching and may be upon them if this team carves out a place in the history books. If Comerford has remained on the fringes until then, Dublin will face a troubling situation.
But at the same time, the Dubs defence doesn’t look as calm or assured when Cluxton is not there. It was only one of the factors in Tralee. The absences of Cian O’Sullivan and Philly McMahon were also keenly felt.
But that’s the thing about this Dublin dominance. For all the riches they are producing in attack, the depth in defence isn’t quite at the same level.
If Cluxton, McMahon and O’Sullivan depart the scene, there is nobody of their quality coming up behind them. And that’s why, if they are not quite pushing the panic button in the capital over the opening games of the League, they do accept the two defeats have thrown up genuine concerns.
Issues that might not be all that easy to solve.