GAVIN v CODY

Dubs manager on the cusp of becoming GAA’s top boss

THERE’S a distinct Sky-Blue hue to the horizon as an eye is cast over the GAA landscape heading into the New Year. Dublin footballers are the dominant force in Gaelic games, occupying a place where Kilkenny’s hurlers resided for so long. It has been customary to use Heffo’s Heroes as the yardstick when delving into the past to measure the greatness of the current All-Ireland football champions. Jim Gavin, in his own unique manner, has consistently batted away any suggestion that his team could be compared to the team of the 1970s.

‘Nothing will ever match Kevin Heffernan’s team and what he did for Dublin GAA, his spark and genius,’ Gavin insisted after his team beat Kerry in the 2015 All-Ireland final. ‘We just stand on his shoulders. Dublin football wouldn’t be what it is today but for those teams, they got the city alive to Gaelic football, so I don’t think we will ever compare to those giants of the game.’

Gavin is correct. It is unwise to draw parallels between eras. The world was a different place in the 1970s and Gaelic games a different sport. However, in the modern age, there are GAA giants to whom this Dublin team does bear comparison – and at just a time when there is a feeling that Cody’s Cats may finally be on the slide.

It’s true that Dublin rode their luck in both games against Mayo in the All-Ireland final and replay last year (especially as the Westerners lost their best player to a harsh black card on the second day) but, in pure statistical terms, their dominance of Gaelic football in 2016 is staggering.

Dublin are unbeaten in League and Championship since March 2015, a remarkable run of 29 games. In 2016, their win rate was 93 per cent. Gavin’s team completed a clean sweep of League, Leinster and All Ireland titles. In his four years in charge, the Dubs have claimed 11 of the 12 major pieces of silverware for which they have competed – it is incredible.

The form of this Dublin team in the past two years puts one in the mind of Kilkenny as they were starting on the road that eventually saw them collect four All-Ireland titles on the bounce. In 2006 and 2007, when the Cats claimed the first two titles of their four-in-a-row, they won 10 straight Championship games. Their only defeat in those two years came in the League final against Waterford. In 2006, they won 11 out of 12 League and Championship games, drawing one.

Although a decade apart, the dominance both teams exert over their competition is remarkably similar. And both periods started with question marks over the manager and his team.

Just as there were doubts about Gavin and how he structured his defence after the way Donegal surprised them in the 2014 All-Ireland semi-final, Cody had to face similar concerns following Kilkenny’s 2005 semi-final defeat to Galway, when they conceded 5-18.

In his autobiography, Cody recalls how he was approached by three players whom he doesn’t name (although one is thought to be Henry Shefflin) in the car park of the Newpark Hotel. They were concerned that the manager was about to walk away, as they felt he hinted at it in his speech following defeat to Galway.

Perhaps, that meeting was the catalyst for the creation of the most dominant force in the history of Gaelic games. It would be September 2010 before Kilkenny lost another Championship game, when Lar Corbett inspired Tipperary to deny them five-in-a-row.

If there was a similar meeting between Gavin and some players following the Donegal defeat of 2014, we will never know about it. Gavin runs a tight ship. Any information seeps out from the Dublin camp is simply there because the manager wants it so.

But in many pubs across the capital in that winter of discontent following the semi-final defeat, people were openly questioning Gavin’s methods and some even wondered if he was the right man for the job.

He analysed and dissected the weaknesses that Jim McGuinness had spotted and performed surgery on his own team. Cian O’Sullivan was transformed into a deep-lying centre-back who was given licence to sweep in front of his full-back line and the rest is history. August 31, 2014 was the last time Dublin were defeated in Championship football.

TWO semi-finals nine years apart are responsible for the creation of two of GAA’s most dominant forces. And just like Kilkenny could regenerate themselves with a conveyor belt that was churning out the likes of Richie Hogan, TJ Reid and Richie Power, Dublin have a wealth of young talent, all eager to prove what they can do. Cormac Costello was brought in from the margins for last year’s All-Ireland final replay and was the difference between the two teams. Con O’Callaghan, who inspired Cuala to their maiden Leinster hurling success, is being touted as the next big thing in Dublin football.

Semi-final defeats caused the two managers to reassess what they were doing – and the direction their team was taking. But they have few other similarities, apart from the careful and deliberate way they choose their language in interviews.

Polar opposites they may be but an unquenchable thirst for success binds these two dominant personalities.

While Gavin remains unflappable, Zen-like on the sideline, not even letting his mask slip to celebrate with members of his backroom team, Cody can be an excitable presence on the sideline, more so in recent seasons.

But Gavin, like Cody, is a winner. Competitive fire burns within him, too. He just chooses not to display it. Gavin is rewriting the record books in his own way, constructing a legacy that may, in time, be as substantial as what Cody has in Kilkenny.

At the start of last season, he lost the reigning footballer of the year in Jack McCaffrey and a former one in Alan Brogan along with a powerful full-back in Rory O’Carroll. Yet, it didn’t knock a breeze out of Gavin.

Jim Gavin is rewriting the history books in his own particular way

Instead, he filled the holes and moulded a team that became the first Dublin side to successfully defend the All-Ireland in 40 years.

He did so by beating three contemporary rivals in his final three games: Donegal, Kerry and Mayo. The average winning margin in the final four games was 1.5 points, but that doesn’t matter. They still won.

Perhaps, the Kilkenny team of 200609 were the more dominant force. After all, they won their first three finals by a combined total of 33 points – under Gavin, Dublin’s three All-Ireland final wins have come by a combined total of five points.

But there’s no shame in that. That this Dublin team can even enter the conversation with the greatest team Irish sport has ever known is testament to Gavin’s footballing intellect and his coaching philosophy – and the fact that he wasn’t afraid to adapt and change after suffering a shock in an All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Donegal.

If the suggestion was made to Jim Gavin, that he is now occupying a place in the GAA pantheon that Brian Cody once held – and that his team has overtaken Kilkenny as the most dominant force, it is not hard to imagine his answer.

It would be similar to what he said when his team was compared to Heffo’s Heroes.

Gavin would say something about no team ever matching Brian Cody’s Kilkenny and what they achieved in the noughties. Maybe not, but this Dublin team are already halfway there.