HE DEFINITELY CONN PLAY A KEY ROLE YET

JIM GAVIN insists Diarmuid Connolly can have a say in Dublin’s bid for the five-in-a-row.

The Blues manager declined to include Connolly in his match-day 26 despite recalling him to the squad last weekend.

He wasn’t needed either as seven different Dublin forwards - including subs Paddy Small and Kevin McManamon - got on the scoresheet in their latest rout.

Asked if Connolly can feature in their remaining games, Gavin nodded and said: “Any player in the squad has a chance of making the match day and getting onto the field of play, it’s as simple as that.”

Gavin was typically coy on the subject of Connolly (above) when asked for a general explanation about bringing him back. He said: “I think we’ve been consistent in saying that any player who is playing well with the club and who wants to come back into the squad, if they’re invited they’ll always be welcome. That goes for any player.

“We were out again looking at games on Wednesday night and we obviously took an interest in the U-21 game on Friday night. There were some good performances there too so it’s very much an open door policy.”

Dublin will play Tyrone in a dead rubber to close out their Super Eights campaign.

But Gavin insisted they’ll be taking it deadly serious with the winners finishing top of the group.

He said: “Any time we’ve played Tyrone they’ve always been great games. We played them last time on the 16th of March, 18 weeks ago or thereabouts. They looked very fit, a very strong side.