Dub trouble . . . heroes of the Hill who managed against their own

Jack Sheedy was the last Dub, before Ger Brennan this Sunday, to face his native county as opposing manager in the championship bearpit.

Longford lost that 2015 Leinster quarter-final by 27 points, 4-25 to 0-10, against a team setting off on their record-shredding run to six consecutive All-Ireland titles.

Sheedy (below) and Jim Gavin had been team-mates in the 1990s. Afterwards, the former insisted he had no regrets over taking on Gavin’s ruthless machine, man for man.

“Putting 15 guys behind the ball was not going to improve how they play football. So no, I wouldn’t have wanted to do it. And they wouldn’t have wanted it either,” he declared.

Nine years later, his thinking hasn’t changed. A date with Dublin had been the reward for beating Offaly in round one. Regardless of what happened there, they would still be playing a few weeks later.

“They were a very formidable, well-oiled machine at that stage. For us to change everything just for one game, to park the bus up and not get beaten by 15-20 points, just didn’t seem the right thing,” Sheedy now recalls.

“They knew they’d been beaten by a very superior team, but it was a great experience . . . and a great learning curve for them because we subsequently had some good results [beating Carlow and Clare in the qualifiers].”

More than a handful of Dubs from that Longford clash are still involved, notably Stephen Cluxton, John Small, Jack McCaffrey, Brian Fenton, Ciarán Kilkenny and Mick Fitzsimons.

Nineteen years earlier, Barney Rock (left) managed Westmeath against his native heath in a 1996 Leinster SFC quarter-final, losing by 1-18 to 0-11 in Navan. At the time, Dublin were All-Ireland holders under a new boss, Mickey Whelan – who had previously managed Louth but never against the Dubs.

Another former Dub who managed Westmeath against his own was Paul Bealin, whose one-year tenure in the midlands included a 2014 NFL Division 1 clash in Mullingar. The hosts put up a decent fight, eventually losing 0-14 to 1-7 against Gavin’s reigning All-Ireland champions.

In Portlaoise last January, Longford retained the O’Byrne Cup while delivering some early-season bragging rights for Paddy Christie against former team-mate Dessie Farrell. Longford prevailed, 1-12 to 0-9, against a largely experimental line-up that did include Evan Comerford, Niall Scully and Colm Basquel.