THE JIM REAPER

Dubs ace O’sullivan says it’s no surprise Gavin is consistently laying waste to the opposition

CIAN O’SULLIVAN says Dublin’s recordbreaking achievements since Jim Gavin sat into the hot-seat are “no coincidence”. The defensive kingpin has worked with Gavin since the 45-year-old was in charge of the county’s under-21s, with O’sullivan captaining the side in his last year at that level to a Leinster title. Gavin subsequently guided the Dubs to All-ireland title success in 2012 and again two years later. Since then they’ve gone on to achieve greatness at senior level. O’sullivan already had one Celtic Cross bagged by the time Gavin was promoted to the senior Dublin post in November 2012. And less than five years on he now has five winners medals at inter-county level to go with the one at club level he has won with Kilmacud Crokes. O’sullivan says it’s Gavin’s forensic attention to detail that has put him on a par in All-ireland final winning terms with the legendary Sean Boylan. “It’s no coincidence,” said the 29-year-old. “He’s an incredible manager. I’ve been with him from under-21s and into the senior team. His attention to detail leaves no stone unturned and the preparation that goes into this team just couldn’t be any better. “Being able to control the game and play it on our terms is something that we try to do. “That’s instilled in us by the management, staying in the moment and sticking to the process are very important things to us. “You can see it out there on Sunday, we probably didn’t do it as much in the first half but in the second half we did. Probably those last three or four minutes when we kept the ball was a sure sign of that.” O’sullivan is in line for a third All-star after another commanding year as Gavin’s defensive enforcer in front of the full-back line, and sometimes as an auxiliary member of it. He admits that he never thought the Dubs could reach this high in such a short span of time. “My first season, 2009, we got beaten by Kerry – 16 points in an All-ireland quarterfinal,” reflected O’sullivan (above). “So five All-irelands was a very distant thought at that stage. Here we are and it’s testament to all the work that’s been done since 2009, and before. “A lot of those players are still involved today. Some group of men – and just feel so privileged to be part of it. I love every moment of it.” Sunday’s victory moved Dublin onto 20 in their run of unbeaten Championship games, stretching back to that 2014 All-ireland semi-final defeat to Donegal. They were also on a new record run of 36 games unbeaten in the league and Championship until Kerry just edged the League decider in April. O’sullivan, though, believes the Dubs are far from invincible. He said: “No , we were beaten in the League final, last year that [Mayo] game went to a replay and we won by a point - and we won by a point on Sunday. “There’s very fine margins there. Cillian O’connor had a kick there, it hit the post. If that had gone over. It would have been a completely different story. “Very fine margins, and we know that there isn’t much between us and the other teams. I think the resilience this team has built up over the last number of years is the difference.”