When Kerry put a spanner in the Dublin ‘machine’
The 1955 All-Ireland pitted a revolutionary Dubs outfit against old-style Kerry values
TWENTY minutes before the minor final the gates of Croke Park were closed to the general public. By 11.0 that morning, the coveted sideline seats had been filled with four hours still to go to throw-in. But even then the stewards and guards struggled to contain the swell of interest with gates broken down and many more than the official attendance of 87,102 registered gaining access.
All weekend, crowds were converging
on Dublin in record numbers. So great was the demand to see it that the queues in London’s Euston Station for the Holyhead boat train meant another one had to be put on.
The 1955 All-Ireland football final between Dublin and Kerry had the feel of something different. And it was.
The counties had met in All-Ireland finals before but this was the first time that an indigenous Dublin team would feature at this stage, free from country imports.
It was a genuine city team, hewn from the St Vincent’s revolution at the end of the 1940s that continued throughout the 1950s which also had protectionism at its core with an insistence that ‘Dublin only’ players could enlist.
That urban/rural divide manifested regularly in those years as Dublin brought something new. “We’d go down to play Offaly and we’d be booed. That was the life we had in Dublin. They made no apology to say they were against Dublin. Offaly would cheer for Kerry,” recalled Cyril Freaney, corner-forward in ’55.
Led by the craft and intelligence of both Kevin Heffernan and Oliver Freaney, they brought new ideas too, a ‘scientific’ approach built on space and movement that deviated from the established principles of catch and kick. With some resonance to this current Dublin team, there was reference to a ‘machine’ and consideration that they may be unbeatable.
But their style wasn’t universally well received. “There was a lot of interpassing, it came from Vincent’s. We beat Cavan, the All-Ireland champions, in the 1953 league final with 14 of the 15 from Vincent’s, bamboozled them. Then it became the norm. You had people shouting ‘soccer, soccer’, we were ‘soccerites’. It wasn’t the catch and kick,” recalled Freaney.
Kerry were guarantors of that customary style. Their legendary trainer Dr Eamonn O’Sullivan saw no reason to change from a tried-and-trusted method that had served Kerry well through the decades.
But Dublin’s ruthless take-down of then All-Ireland champions Meath in that year’s Leinster final caused reverberations through the game. They won by 20 points, scoring five goals with Heffernan, as a roving full-forward, running riot.
The future Dublin manager was a close observer of other sports and had been taken by Don Revie’s deployment in English soccer of a deep-lying centreforward.
Previously a corner-forward, Heffernan switched inside with devastating effect, taking Meath’s legendary full-back Paddy O’Brien time and time again with his darting runs.
O’Brien, full-back on the GAA’s ‘Team of the Century’ in 1984, was nicknamed ‘Hands’ and had been suffering from an injury so following Heffernan was not an option. In any case, it wouldn’t have been his instinct. ‘Man-to-man’ was his preferred form of combat.
Dublin’s new approach gained further momentum when they beat Mayo after a replay in the semi-final, setting up a final that was billed as a clash of distinctive styles.
It is considered the day when Dublin’s relationship with Hill 16 began in earnest but it was also Heffernan’s greatest disappointment in a long and distinguished involvement in the games.
Everything felt like it had been in place. As Cyril Freaney recalled, they even wore blue socks for the first time in that game rather than the socks of their clubs which had been the custom before that. And they were even informed they could keep the jerseys afterwards.
“It was a big deal, you know. And on the morning of the match we had scrambled egg in Barry’s Hotel before getting into the cars and driving down to Croke Park,” said Freaney.
But they lost Norman Allen to appendicitis beforehand, Marcus Wilson had a leg injury while midfielder Jim McGuinness carried a knock into the game that hampered him. Worst of all perhaps, Heffernan picked up an ankle injury at training on the Tuesday night.
“There was a doctor from Australia living around the corner in Clontarf. The word was he was up at the rugby club, a great injection doctor. ‘Heffo’ decided he’d get an injection. We didn’t fancy that, it was foreign to us.
“On the Saturday night, five of us went out to Howth, walked the pier, came back, and went to bed. No sign of ‘Heffo’, couldn’t do that.”
Dublin lost to a Tadhg Lyne-inspired Kerry by 0-12 to 1-6 and it all felt a bit hollow for them. “People couldn’t believe we were beaten. But we weren’t a great team. At the end of the day we didn’t play well,” said Freaney.
Kerry won by staying true to what they always did. And a great revolution felt like it had been quelled.