Chasing the Dubs
ICAUGHT an eyeful of Dublin in the flesh last Sunday and found myself giving silent thanks to the patron saint of retired inter-county footballers for calling me home. They were the last team I faced as a Kerry footballer – and then I was only offered a fleeting glimpse for the final couple of minutes of the 2016 semi-final – and while they always left an impression, it was nothing like the one they made last Sunday.
I was interviewed pitchside at half-time to share my views on what had unfolded in the opening 35-odd minutes, having waited in a little ‘green room’ for my cue.
It was through that open door I watched as the Dublin players marched back down the tunnel at half-time and the cut of them left me shaking my head.
They were hardly carrying spare tyres when I played against them two years ago but even in the intervening 24 months they seem to have changed body shape, sprouted trunks for legs and fashioned chests out of barrels.
And you wondered how Paul Mannion, who when I spotted him first five years ago I saw as a knacky corner-forward but one who would melt if you breathed fire on him, could make two huge plays in his own full-back line and within seconds could be bursting a gut at the other end of the field.
Well, wonder no more. They are bigger, better and stronger than they were when they started out.
Hell, they are younger too – my inner Kerry child threw a tantrum when he read that the age profile of the team that won their fourth title in a row is actually younger than the team which beat us in 2015. Time waits for no man they tell us, well I bloody well wish someone would tell that to Jim Gavin.
And, just in case, you are wondering yes they will win five in a row next year. And I would not rule out them winning another one or two after that.
But don’t confuse that for resignation, because I am mad as hell. And that is how I am hoping that every Kerry, Mayo, Donegal, Galway, Monaghan and Tyrone footballer – and let’s be honest they are the only ones that are within sniffing distance – are feeling too.
Yes, we should recognise Dublin’s greatness, but the last thing football needs now is for us to bow compliantly in front of it.
I am also sick of hearing about how unfair the rest have it; how Dublin have been showered with money and love by both the state and the GAA, how they get to enjoy home comforts while the rest of us shiver out in the cold.
If there are counties out there who view that as some kind of comfort blanket to justify their own underachievement, then they will suffocate beneath it.
Dublin’s conditioning gives them a real edge and it turned out to be a match-defining one last Sunday. Tyrone were left gasping after putting so much into the first quarter while the champions stayed the course, like they always do.
Bryan Cullen’s legacy to Dublin will not be captaining them to that win in 2011 but in helping to ensure they have delivered on their talent by being fit enough to deliver time and again.
The good news, though, for everyone else is that what Cullen does can be replicated, but too few counties are stepping up to that mark.
I include my own in that. If the Dublin production line was greased by the kind of talent Kerry’s multiple winning minor teams have offered up, how many more of them would now be operating at a higher level? My guess is several. This year Kerry had a half share in their S&C head coach Joe O’Connor and when Kerry’s summer unravelled against Galway, he was down in Thurles with the Limerick hurlers.
I am not suggesting that it would have made any difference, but can you imagine Dublin sharing a key member of their coaching personnel? I thought as much.
I know funding is a huge issue, and it had given Dublin a big advantage, but there are ways and means of levelling out that field.
I believe every county should have a full-time S&C coach, one that could in part be funded by central funds, who would oversee the development of players through the age groups, supported by the sports science graduates who are crying out for experience in every county.
It is a practical step that would go some way to bridging the chasm, and it would certainly be more productive than wailing at the moon.
I am not suggesting that it is a silver bullet, but then I don’t think one is needed. Dublin may not come back to the pack, but neither will they always be this good so what the rest should be doing right now is meeting them half way and that plan should begin right here, right now.
I give no credence to those who believe that the answer to a more competitive Championship is by diminishing what Dublin are about. I don’t believe that they should be split in two and I don’t believe that rule changes should be dictated by limiting the effectiveness of Dublin’s gameplan.
The latter is a fanciful notion anyhow and history tells us as much – disallowing hand-passed scores was sold as a rule change that would end Kerry’s domination in the 1980s and we know how that worked out – but the fact of the matter is that great players adapt far better than good ones do.
And Dublin are great and they will remain great while Jim Gavin
When the Dubs splutter, other counties must be ready to seize the day
remains in charge. More power to them, but there will come a time when he will go, or when three or four players leave at the one time, and the transition will splutter a little.
That’s the nature of sport and I am not buying that Dublin are insulated against nature’s lifecycle.
The key, though, is that when it happens, others are ready to seize the day.
That is the challenge for the rest of us.
We either get busy living or get busy dying.
And that is no choice at all.