Dublin must not be able to enforce yet another act of Blue Rule
Late summer will pose as diverse a spread of threats as the champions have known
GAVIN IS ALSO TRYING TO RENEW THIS TEAM WHILE STILL STRONG
STAYING sensible has been one of the subtler victories achieved by Dublin under Jim Gavin.
No team has ever had better reason to lose the run of themselves and turn daft on hype. No side has ever been subject to predictions of dizzying dominance like this one. Not even the great Kilkenny team of the mid to late 2000s, which ruled Championship summers with an iron wonder, were as fancied to turn their sport into a procession.
A wider spread of quality in football has checked Dublin, but still there are some certain that Gavin’s champions will reduce the competition to the status of elections in tinpot democracies, where the result is known before anyone leaves the house to vote.
In such circumstances, Dublin and their manager have done remarkably well to stay so focussed for so long. Given they operate in an environment where the air is always full of the conviction they cannot be beaten, their commitment to first principles has been unwavering.
They have consistently, ruthlessly, sometimes beautifully and often cynically, got the job done. This generation will be celebrated for their swashbuckling sweeps through Leinster and the second-half surges that reduced many opponents to demoralised wrecks, but what will endure is their gritty character.
The three All-Ireland finals won under Gavin have been taut, none of them won easily on the day, yet the exertions required to claim the Sam Maguire were forgotten as hymns to their invincibility filled the air.
Those claims were never sensible and they have never looked as empty as they do this morning.
Dublin prepare the latest defence of their title showing more signs of vulnerability than at any time under Gavin – and that includes the aftermath of their loss to Donegal in 2014. There are two obvious reasons for this.
The first is down to Kerry and the improvements wrought in their team by Éamonn Fitzmaurice. They are younger and more mobile than at any time under the current management, and the greater speed complements a forward threat that will remain palpable as long as Paul Geaney and James O’Donoghue are fit to start in the team.
A renovated Kerry will lead the opposition to Gavin’s rule through the summer, which will also feature one, perhaps final, tilt from Mayo. And who knows, maybe even a run from the new Donegal unit being engineered by Rory Gallagher.
Just off the shoulders of these pursuers are Monaghan and Tyrone. These counties have the speed and the strength to make Dublin uncomfortable on an August afternoon in Croke Park.
Late summer will pose as diverse a spread of threats as Gavin has had to worry about since taking charge of the county. The second reason for Dublin’s increasing fallibility suggests that even the mightiest forces must be subject to the passing of time. Enough evidence has accrued over the past eight months to indicate that this iteration of the boys in blue is weakening.
Since the Leinster football final last July, Dublin have played 12 matches between League and Championship. They have won seven of them, drawn four and lost only once, defeat coming in the League final against Kerry last month.
That is an impressive record but it belies the claims for Dublin as an unbeatable phenomenon sweeping all before them. They ground out victory in the replayed All-Ireland final last October, thanks mainly to the effectiveness of their replacements.
In both matches, though, and in particular the drawn one, they struggled when Mayo matched their running power and general physical strength. A team renowned for piling up scores took just five points from play in the tied match, and 0-7 in the replay.
The League featured three more draws, which should finish the talk that Dublin are a riddle beyond solving. However, it is important not to exaggerate the speed of decline. Dublin are, after all, still the county most likely to end the season as All-Ireland champions – and a third consecutive victory would establish them as the greatest football team in the county’s vibrant history.
Gavin is also trying to renew his side while they are strong, the clever approach to regeneration. Therefore players like Niall Scully, Conor McHugh and Ciarán Reddin were tempered during the spring.
If none of them will be expected to change Dublin’s summer, John Small (left) and Cormac Costello will be backed to take a firmer hold on starting positions in the Championship side after the progress they made last year.
Another All-Ireland Under 21 victory provides further proof of development below senior level, and the undoubted depth of Gavin’s options is cited as one of the reasons for predictions of a long period of Dublin rule.
However, that is to suppose the coming generations will be as good as the men who have made Dublin
great today – and that is a wild assumption.
For in Stephen Cluxton, Cian O’Sullivan, Paul Flynn and Bernard Brogan, Gavin has been able to call upon a group of leaders that arrive only rarely, even in the populous counties. If one of the current U21s has the influence on the county that Cluxton has had, then Dublin will be extraordinarily, improbably fortunate.
The decision to recast O’Sullivan as a sweeper will never be bettered by the current management, while for a couple of seasons Flynn wielded influence on big matches with astonishing consistency.
Brogan is regularly and unfairly dismissed as a finisher, but his relatively late flourishing into the best forward in the game was a testament to the ferocious capacity for work that distinguishes this marvellous group.
These men have been consistent match-winners but also leaders. Michael Darragh Macauley and Kevin McManamon contributed heavily too, while Diarmuid Connolly’s impact has been stylish if less frequent.
Between them, the Dublin teams over the past five years have established standards no other county have been able to reliably reach. The best footballers in Kerry, Mayo and Donegal have found Dublin too good.
In extending his term for two seasons after this one, Gavin is accepting the challenge of building a new force, because players like Flynn, Brogan, Macauley and McManamon are past their best.
Only one of them, Flynn, looks like a starter this season, and in time even Cluxton will have to succumb to age.
As a goalkeeper his enormous influence will linger for some time yet, but their results and the patchiness of some of their performances since last August do indicate that Dublin have peaked. The trick for everyone else, though, is capitalising on that, and none of the pack look good enough to take advantage this year. Dublin had to wring everything from their resources to see off Mayo last October, but this year the challenge could come earlier.
The Mayo test in the finals last season relied to an important degree on matching Dublin’s physical power, and Kerry, Monaghan and Tyrone would all fancy that they could do the same.
Gavin can make extravagant, needless claims for his side when discussing the spirit in which they play the game. Frankly, they do what needs to be done.
That is what the best sides do, and Dublin have been the best for half a decade. They should hold that status in 2017, but Blue Rule is under new and interesting threat.