No rest for high-flying Dublin, vows Gavin

ALLIANZ FL DIVISION 1: Dublin v Tyrone

Mayo’s seven points saw them qualify in one of the top four positions last year and Dublin, with four wins from four, are already on eight.

In the event of a fifth Dublin victory, Gavin said: “There won’t be any comfort zone. We just continue on. We’re in a training cycleto get us ready for theChampionship.

“I don’t know what other teams are doing. All I control is the Dublin football team and we’re on a training cycle to get us ready for June. We’ve mapped it out with the athletic coach, Martin Kennedy, and that was put to bed in November. It’s rolling towards June.”

Dublin have been receiving plenty of praise for the positive football they’ve been playing of late but Gavin doesn’t feel they have to continually play attractively.

“You are trying to maximise their potential as a group and if that means they play the way they play, great. Trying to get the performance is the key based on the players you have.”

He is enthusiastic about the tactical direction Gaelic football is going.

“I think it is a fascinating side to the game despite what some people, who criticise the evolution of Gaelic football, might say,” says Gavin.

It may be deemed as frightening by some or just an attempt by Gavin to keep his players grounded but he insists there is plenty of room for improvement.

“We are looking for a consistency in performance for the full 70 minutes.

“Every session we do with the guys you can see the progress with them, and these elite level players by their nature are all intelligent guys anyway and their game intelligence is very high and they absorb what you are trying to teach or coach them very quickly.

“You are always reflecting on the performance and on how the team played and the tactics you deployed so it’s very much a cycle of looking back and trying to improve.

“I still haven’t got that game yet where you can say there has been perfection. And that’s a long way anyway.”

Gavin has noticed how strong Tyrone are at U21 level this year, not to mention the experience they have along the spine of their team.

“Tyrone got off to a very good start in the year winning the McKenna Cup, started very well in the league and probably had different personnel in the game (defeat) against Cork, a lot of changes and brought a lot of guys back from injury and that takes at least a game to back up to game pace. I’m sure you’ll see a different Tyrone team on Saturday.”