laois v dublin Gilroy: Work should pay off for Dubs

PAT Gilroy says Dublin footballers are putting a big effort and will be a hard team to beat this year.

Gilroy – who returned to the Dublin football setup this year under Dessie Farrell – led Dublin to the 2011 Allireland title.

This sparked a remarkable run of eight All-ireland titles in 10 years as Dublin utterly dominated football under Jim Gavin and then Farrell.

However, they’ve gone two-and-ahalf years without an All-ireland title, their longest hiatus since that breakthrough title.

Dublin begin their latest Championship campaign against laois in tomorrow’s leinster quarter-final at Portlaoise.

Working

“They are working very hard as a group and Dublin will be a hard team to beat this year,” said Gilroy.

“The big performances are required in the summer months.”

The format for the 2023 All-ireland

Football Championship has changed to a round-robin system, and it should suit Dublin, with the guarantee of more quality games ahead of the knock-out All-ireland quarter-finals.

“it’s going to be funny to see how each team goes as the game has changed drastically since the time i was managing,” added Gilory.

“it’s so crucial to have a big squad to try to deal with the amount of games that will be coming your way.

“i think Dublin have used close to 40 players in the league and that’s hard to get consistency in performances when you keep changing the team.

“f you get the best out of the team on the very last day, whenever that is, that’s all you can ask for.

“There is an element of luck involved to win an All-ireland.”

Gilroy’s return has sparked fresh hope in Dublin circles that

Sam Maguire will come back to the capital for the first time since the 2020 Covid-hit winter Championship.

“Dessie asked me if i could give a hand,” he explained.

“Unfortunately i couldn’t take on a team, which was my first year out of management in 20 years.

“My personal goals would be to be there more often than i have been so far.

“i took my first team when i was 19 and started getting involved in coaching at a very young age.”

Campaign

Dublin hurlers also begin their Championship campaign this weekend, with a tough trip to face Antrim at Corrigan

Park.

Gilroy managed the Dublin senior hurling team in 2018, but work commitments forced him to step aside after one season.

“The hurling is a lot more 50/50 challenges,” he said. “it’s a lot less structured as the ball can travel so far with fellas scoring from 100 yards.

“There was a big difference in the level of condition that the Dublin hurlers had in comparison to the footballers – even from the time we took them over.

“We could only do so much that year because it was a funny year. There was club championship for the whole month of April.

“We had about three weeks to prepare for Kilkenny and we lost all those games in the last 10 minutes due to fitness.”

exPerienCe: Pat Gilroy is helping out