IT MUST BE FUN

Jim Gavin insists there’d be no point in playing the game if it wasn’t enjoyable

TRAINING sessions co-ordinated with the dawn chorus. Strength and conditioning regimes to rival a professional elite athlete. The demands of juggling an amateur Gaelic football career with the nine-to-five demands of work.

Jim Gavin understands the pressures of the modern game but he doesn’t buy the idea that the life of an inter-county footballer is somehow a joyless affair. ‘Fun’ isn’t a word that pops up regularly in conversations about defending an AllIreland title, especially at an 8am press conference, but the Dublin manager insists his team’s success is down to a vital ingredient.

‘People will talk about the pressures but if the players aren’t having fun playing the game, we aren’t doing our job. That’s been consistent with all the teams I’ve been involved with,’ says Gavin, who made history by winning the first four major trophies at his disposal.

‘If the guys aren’t having fun in the squad sessions and fun in general – we practice a bit of catch and kick in training sessions, a bit of backs and forwards. It’s fun stuff that we do with them. If it’s not fun, certainly we’re not doing our job as a management team.’ What is certain is that his team plays with a free spirit and, at times, careless abandon, almost singlehandedly challenging the assumption that the Sam Maguire Cup

couldn’t be won without a well-drilled defensive system.

Dublin’s attacking blitzkrieg has made them close to unbackable for this afternoon’s Leinster Championship quarter-final against Laois at Croke Park, with memories of their 17-point League semi-final turnaround against Cork and 15-point League final defeat of Derry still fresh.

But Gavin claims that the players won’t be tripped up by arrogance or complacency.

‘It’s not part of the culture within the team. They’ve all grown up within that bubble of expectation. We’ve won two All-Irelands in the last 19 years, both won by a point. The All-Ireland in ’95 was won by a point, as was ’83.

‘They are accustomed to living with that expectation but they are acutely aware that it brings no guarantees either. They have to earn the right to win these competitions. The first challenge is a big one against Laois.’

Still, even if the winning margin was actually two back in ’83 against Galway, the players can’t be immune from all the talk that Leinster is a one-horse race. As it stands, the holders are looking for what would be a record ninth provincial title in 10 years.

‘It’s not a case of protecting them from anything. They will have these conversations with family, with work colleagues but their great strength is their mental strength. That was demonstrated in many games last year and it was demonstrated in the National League as well. Their willingness to challenge themselves.

‘We’re acutely aware that if we remain static, teams will overtake us. They know they need to grow as a team.’

AND he says that goes for the management too. He shrugs off the personal milestone of being the first Dublin manager to win the Leinster Championship, All-Ireland and back-to-back National Leagues in his first 18 months in charge. ‘It doesn’t register,’ he insists.

‘We don’t reflect on it that way. For the players and management, when our time is up we might have a quiet

We’re used to living with big expectations but we are also acutely aware there are never any guarantees

moment. For now, it’s not about the past. We’ll always review things.

‘We’re no different to the players. We have to grow. What worked last week, last month, last year won’t be good enough next week, next month, next year.

‘That’s the consistent challenge. Change is inevitable. In life, in sport. We’ve seen it with the rules, with the tactics of the game. That’s the beauty of it. That’s why we all love being involved in Gaelic games, it’s an evolving sport.

‘The primary thing we are working on is getting consistency. Even in last year’s campaign, in the totality of it, we weren’t consistent. That was a challenge for us in the National Football League of 2014 – we haven’t been

consistent. If we’re not consistent over the 70 minutes against Laois, the result mightn’t go our way.’

At times, the cracks have shown up in Dublin’s armour. Colm O’Neill’s match-winning cameo gave Cork the points at Croke Park back in February and there was a period in the League semi-final when they took Dublin apart to lead by 10 points.

Then there is history which shows that only Kerry in 2006-07 have managed to defend an AllIreland title since Cork in 1989-90. Gavin (above with Philly MvMahon) prefers to look at it in a different light.

‘We don’t look at it as defending the title; we’ve handed the trophies back. 2013 is in the past; it’s a year that has gone. The strength of this team is that they look at the present, they don’t look at the past. They don’t even look too far into the future.

‘The challenge for them is to get over the challenge of Laois. That is the team’s biggest threat. If we can get over that, we can deal with the next challenge.’

AS AN air corps pilot and instructor now working in the Irish Aviation Authority, he has to fit in his ‘hobby’ around his work, hence the 8am media briefings in the Gibson Hotel. But no part of him would like to see the Dublin ‘job’ become a paid position.

‘I don’t think Gaelic games can sustain professionalism in any form. Administrators to administrate the game, that’s the only people that I think need to have a professional job. Other than that, we all share the ethos of the Association founded 130 years ago. That ethos has served us well.

‘Even though there are changes in life, that’s the one thing that we can’t change, that amateur ethos. It’s the bedrock of the Association.

Every parish in the island, and the 400 clubs overseas, it’s about amateur ethos. ‘The Dublin county board are quite comfortable to have managers doing it as a hobby as such, that the management have professional jobs outside of football.’

For someone who played on the 1995 All-Ireland winning team and who made his mark initially on the sideline with the county’s under-21s, he’s asked if he can ever see himself managing another county.

‘I’m just privileged to be involved with Dublin. All my life I’ve been involved with Dublin. That’s where my focus is.’