It’s the hope that kills you. At the start of every season, it’s in the DNA of a GAA fan to get a new transfusion of hope. Regardless of whether it’s club or county, whether new players have come in or you’ve actually lost some.
There’s something woven into the GAA psyche which plants This is our year front and centre of your thought stream at the start of every season. Perhaps there was even an overload of it in Meath early this year with both Colm O’Rourke and Sean Boylan directing operations.
Understandable. That I should grow too old to dream, close the door and switch off the lights on the way out. However, the reality often is that the more things change, the more they stay the same.
You’d forgive any team a diminishment in their productivity had they bade farewell to a slew of superstars as have Dublin in recent times. To some extent, I suppose there has been. They haven’t won an All Ireland in two years – Lord help us – and found themselves demoted to the second tier of the National League. Though there would be hardly too much sleep lost over that in the capital. In fact, it may end up being something of a blessing in disguise for Dessie Farrell’s charges.
Purely because it allowed them to afford more experience to the likes of David O’Hanlon and Daire Newcombe and Lorcan O’Dell and Lee Gannon and Killian O’Gara without the white hot intensity of Div. 1 competition. Mind you, while they did encounter a few sticky patches along the way, the ruthless manner in which they dispatched Meath along the way and – ultimately – Derry in last Sunday’s Final should’ve been signpost enough that they haven’t gone away, you know!
Then again, in all fairness, the same statement must absolutely apply to the Oak Leaf County who – lest it be forgotten – are the current Ulster champions. Having completed an almost identical journey to that of Cavan referred to in my last piece in rising through the four divisions of the NFL under the messianic leadership of Rory Gallagher. Whether they are good enough to bring Sam Maguire over the Sperrins for a second time may be another thing entirely but they certainly have the capacity to cause plenty of teams headaches along the way.
They surely did for Dublin in the early stages on Sunday last with Brendan Rodgers, Conor Glass and Shane McGuigan causing what to my mind is still a susceptible Dublin rearguard no end of problems. As a result of which the underdogs led by 0-06 to 0-04 at half time. Unfortunately from the viewpoint of the white and red, that was as good as it got. Once Glass broke down early in the second half, their ambitions shattered. Mostly because the Glass swept off the playing arena Brian Fenton emphatically demonstrated why he is the best midfielder of this generation or maybe several others.
To mention the words Dublin, Croke Park and home ground in the same sentence is surely the epitome of flogging a dead horse but the boys in blue surely do get a few extra litres of diesel in the tank when let out on the big field. Now, it could be rightly pointed out that both Kildare and Clare could’ve usurped Dessie’s Dubs at GAA HQ but, as my late father used to say, “Nearly never killed anybody”. Thus, on Sunday last, when the sh** was really about to hit the fan, Fenton drew his baton and conducted the orchestra to a goal rush delivered via Killian O’Gara, a Paul Mannion penalty, the raiding from the back John Small and finally a truly terrific goal by the introduced Lorcan O’Dell.
As far Derry, naturally I’m sure they will have been disappointed to lose a national final but – and this mindset drives me nuts – you can probably be certain they were taking a long range view of their season. Hence why Crissy McCague wasn’t risked and Glass was encased in bubble wrap at the first sign of bother.
Not a stance I’d agree with myself. For me, the John Giles mantra of taking each game on its merits is the way to go. Still, it says much about the status Gallagher’s troops have earned in the game and where they see themselves going.
Dublin were considerably better here than they have been throughout the league but there are at least three more gears they can move up through. God help the rest of us.
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