No paragons of virtue left in this game

THE news this week that Jim Gavin is to remain as the Dublin manager until the end of the 2019 Championship will have sent a chill through the rest of the country.

The scale of what he has achieved is sometimes unfairly masked by all the talk of the advantages he has been gifted, in terms of financial and human resources as well as kindly geographical logistics which keeps his players close to hand and provides Croke Park as a home pitch.

All of that may be true, but only in time will it be truly realised what he has achieved, not only in how he has built, motivated and organised one of the greatest teams that has ever played the game.

That Gavin sees a future in his team for another two years – not least given that key figures such as Stephen Cluxton, Cian O’Sullivan, Paul Flynn (above) and Bernard Brogan are approaching their end game – amounts to a declaration of faith in the talent coming through.

However, less impressive is his instinct to rush to the moral high ground at every opportunity.

He was at it again this week, claiming that he could not understand the ‘narrative’ prior to the recent Allianz League final which sought to portray his team as ‘cynical’. Sure, Dublin can thrill onlookers like no other team that is playing ball at present, but their manager should stop holding them up as paragons of virtue in a game which sadly has none.