IT’S A GOLDEN AGE
It’s not that others are falling behind – Dublin are simply miles ahead
THE fire still burns bright in Mickey Whelan. He is 77 years old now but a rare sitdown interview tells you that he could still lift the hinges off a dressing-room door with a half-time speech if needed. The twin pillars of St Vincent’s and Dublin have propped up his sporting life, whether as player, coach, or manager.
Tracing the current golden era of the Dublin senior football team is easy – the first shot was fired in the revolution with the 2011 All-Ireland final breakthrough against Kerry, when Whelan was the sideline lieutenant alongside fellow St Vincent’s man Pat Gilroy.
Professor Niall Moyna was part of the backroom team at that time with DCU playing its own part in building Dublin into a superpower. Moyna, the head of Health and Human Performance, saw so many of the first team pass through the college’s doors where Whelan worked in tandem and still lectures.
As Dublin seek to make history in 2017, chasing a fifth National League title in succession and an All-Ireland three-in-a-row, the pair talk through the modern success story as St Vincent’s also prepare to face Slaughtneil next Saturday in an All-Ireland club semi-final.
Philip Lanigan: How significant was the 2011 All-Ireland victory over Kerry in terms of what Dublin have achieved since?
Niall Moyna: [Selector] David Hickey came to me in 2011 – I remember we went out for a walk in the park in DCU – and he said to me, ‘If this team get it right, they can win the next five All-Irelands.’ He saw it. He just saw there was something unique about the group. Mickey isn’t going to brag about it but himself and Pat wanted to change the whole culture.
Mickey Whelan: We had to. NM: It was nearly, nearly, nearly, nearly. But when the big question was ever asked, Dublin collapsed.
To be fair, our first year (which ended in a 17-point All-Ireland quarter-final defeat by Kerry), that was a resounding wake-up call as well. The ‘startled earwigs…’ (Gilroy’s famous description of the players). I think we met after that and decided to go a different way.
MW: We had to change. We couldn’t come in and change a team that had won five Leinster Championships in a row. We had to see what players had to offer.
But when we got to the All-Ireland quarter-final and were beaten that way by Kerry, we had to take a real in-depth look at the team. PL: Was it a shock to the system even to someone of Whelan’s experience? MW: It wasn’t a shock to the system. We kind of suspected that there was a flaw there. PL: So how do you go about creating a winning culture? NM: There was a standard laid down. An expectation. And I think the players knew that a certain standard was expected. PL: On and off the field?
NM: Yes. The day of the ‘mé féiner’ was long gone. That this was going to be a team effort. That we were going to sink or swim as a team. No doubt about it, after the Kerry game in particular, that was the feeling.
But we also knew to be fair… DCU played UCD in a Sigerson Cup game in 2010 and Ross O’Carroll was playing. Cian O’Sullivan. Jonny Cooper. James McCarthy. Bryan Cullen. Paul Flynn. Dean Rock.
I remember you (MW) coming back to me after that and saying, ‘There’s the nucleus…’
You also saw something in [Eoghan] O’Gara. You’re the guy who said about O’Carroll, there’s the next fullback. Mickey has that great eye.
There probably were players with talent but who weren’t getting onto the panel because they didn’t have the character.
PL: Would the continued Dublin revolution under Jim Gavin have happened if they lost? MW: All the evidence points to it being more difficult. It would have been another defeat. We had to break that chain. And the chain was broken then. NM: I think if you ask Jim, he’d have no doubt. That set the tone. He came in to a group of players who were ready and primed to go to the next level. If you look at the backbone of the successful Dublin team over the last four years, it is the 2011 team. PL: The history of Dublin football has always been shaped so much by Kerry? MW: [Kevin] Heffernan felt that you had to beat Kerry to really win an All-Ireland. And it didn’t happen too often for him until the latter stages of his career. It is a great touchstone to beat Kerry. NM: It’s a great compliment to them. They are the princes of football. The quality of football that they play. PL: Dublin’s current run of 29 matches unbeaten in League and Championship – how big a milestone? MW: I was gone so I wouldn’t want to be trying to claim any credit. Gavin has done a brilliant job with the team. And the players have grown in stature themselves, that self-belief. We worked on better decision makers, that’s the name of the game. We tried to toughen them up, make things difficult for them. Because there was a soft undercarriage there.
When the team was playing in a Leinster final or in a Leinster Championship, they could play with a bit of flamboyancy. Not be worried. When you got out of Leinster and it was knock-out. No safety net. That brings a different mental pressure to the game.
To be honest, the year before [2010], we should have beaten Cork to reach the All-Ireland final.
PL: Looking at club and county parallels, hardly a coincidence that when St Vincent’s are going well, Dublin tend to go well?
MW: You’re going to start a war here! [laughing] We’ve only a few players on the team, that’s all!
NM: It’s not a coincidence. I was around in 2007. Mickey got me involved in St Vincent’s. We were watching an Under 21 game. And Mickey said to me about a week later, ‘There’s the nucleus of a brilliant team.’ Now I didn’t see anything. I just saw an Under 21 team. All of a sudden, that was the nucleus of the team that won the All-Ireland club championship within two years.
NM: When Pat [Gilroy] came in, I just saw there was a ruthlessness from Pat and Mickey. MW: There had to be. NM: I think the players wanted that. Looking back, I think a lot of the players on that panel knew they were in a comfort zone. A lot of the players who would have been regarded as star players weren’t around 14 months later. Pat had to be that ruthless. MW: My reputation was sh*** going into it [laughing]! But I knew what I could do. PL: Is one of the hardest things creating the right culture? NM: I can give DCU as an example. People say to me, ‘Oh look at the All Blacks. Let’s do that next year.’ You don’t do it next year. It’s a culture you establish over a decade. A player coming into the Dublin set-up today is very different [from a player] coming into the Dublin setup 10 years ago. They are coming into a very different culture. MW: We contributed to the changes, that’s what I’d say. Jim has developed that. PL: Looking at the bigger picture, is there not a serious worry about the rest of Leinster in terms of competitiveness? MW: No. we’re going through a golden age. This could stop. NM: I’d be very concerned with Leinster. Very concerned. All the next teams are second tier. There is nobody near Dublin. They could nearly put out their second team and compete with the other teams. That’s a big worry for me (speaking before
Dublin’s third string won the O’Byrne Cup). It’s a worry for Dublin as well. Every year, you could get caught when your first hard game is so late. Some day you could get caught. You need those really tough games in Leinster.
PL: Previously, the game always went in cycles. Is that not the case anymore with Dublin?
MW: The beauty with Dublin is that their second 15 is probably as good as the sixth or seventh best team in the country.
So they are getting quality competition every time they go on the field. Every training session, there’s a game in it. So they’re meeting top class quality.
NM: Now Dublin were in crisis. To be fair to (CEO) John Costello, when the GAA did give them the money, the money has been well spent. And you can see the rewards.
PL: But is the coaching and games development money dating back over a decade making it an unfair playing field for the rest who also don’t have big-money sponsors like AIG?
NM: I’m not a Dublin person. But I totally understand why Dublin need to be strong. Dublin were pretty close now to being extinct, really. They were always there or therea-
bouts. They could produce a team but weren’t going to win anything. That has changed.
But I think there is a perception out there now, because of the commercial potential of Dublin, there is no way a Leitrim or a Longford or a Monaghan could compete with that. But I don’t blame Dublin. That’s the way the GAA works.
I don’t believe in the provincial system – but that’s the way the GAA works.
It’s up to the GAA to be innovative and come up with ways so that other teams aren’t being left behind. You can’t blame Dublin.
PL: Diarmuid Connolly – where does he rank in terms of talent and the players who have played the game?
MW: Where would I put him? He’s a great player. There are lots of great players out there. What about the Gooch (Colm Cooper)?
NM: I would say they are the two best players of the past 25 years.
I’ve seen Diarmuid Connolly since he was 17. I’ve only seen him play once the way he can play. That was the (2014 All-Ireland) club final. Diarmuid Connolly can do that effortlessly.
That’s the thing that worries me, he doesn’t do it enough. Phenomenal, gifted player. He could play in
any position – which the Gooch couldn’t.
PL: For an innate talent, he has stressed how hard he works at his game.
MW: He definitely worked hard with us.
NM: I think he’s the most gifted player in the game at the moment by the proverbial mile. But he’s only playing at 50 per cent. In terms of putting performances in a row together.
MW: His talent is unbelievable. He needs to feel challenged. It’s not that he doesn’t care – he cares all the time. When he goes on the field he wants to win. But he has this ability to play at the level required – then when it goes up a notch, he
can go up a notch. A great player.
Let me ask you a question, what about Cluxton? He’s the best goalkeeper ever in my view. Ever. Has he been Footballer of the Year? No. He has now captained the team to four National Leagues and three All-Irelands.
Not only that, he makes one blunder – and generally his blunders are because he’s trying to be perfect – and… That’s why I’m reluctant to get into where players rank.
PL: Will a three in a row of All-Irelands elevate Dublin to a whole new level?
MW: What will happen if Dublin get beaten this year? That’s all that matters. That they win. Not the three-in-a-row, not the two-in-arow. That they win. THIS ONE. Do you think Kilkenny were thinking of six in a row or seven in a row?
They are just thinking: ‘This one.’ As Heffernan used to say to us, ‘This is our bread and butter here… Championship.’
NM: Even mentioning three-in-arow, that’s not the way Dublin will be looking at it. It’s, ‘Here’s the Championship this year. Happen to win this and you tag it on to the last two. If it makes three, so be it. But it’s about the here and now.’
MW: Look at the team that beat Kerry in the ’70s. [Jimmy] Keaveney was a midfielder when he was a young fella.
Turned into the best full-forward Dublin ever had. Best free-taker. Didn’t even lift his leg at all – whack – straight over.
Getting back to 2011, that Dublin team was only the second Dublin team to beat Kerry in an All-Ireland final in something like 80 years. Is it any wonder, when they were coming up on the train, that they didn’t give a damn about Dublin. ‘Sure they’ve never beaten us.’ They were in our heads. Now? We’re in their heads. I knew we were going to win in 2011 – and I’ll tell you why. See when Kerry are good, what are they telling the public? ‘Ah we’re no use. No, no, Dublin have to be favourites for this…’
When they’re saying like they were saying last year and in 2011, ‘No, we’re good’ – they’re trying to convince themselves.
Now it’s nearly impossible to convince this group.
The four All-Irelands you’ve seen, the four National Leagues – nothing compares to 2011. NM: A special day. MW: Do you remember the roar? I was on the field and I felt the ground shake.
NM: It removed a lot of baggage.
Dublin’s second string is probably the sixth best side in the country