Fogarty Forum: Dublin's detractors only wish that they're dead
Dublin's Sean Macmahon dejected after the Allianz League defeat by Kerry
HERE doesn’t lie the body of the Dublin senior football team. You won’t be reading any epitaphs for them here, no siree. Simply because they ain’t dead.
Some commentary would have you believe they are or as good as, neglecting the fact that in Tralee on Saturday they were down almost half of the team that started last year’s All-Ireland semi-final.
None of those seven come off the bench or retired. Come to think of it, only three of the 2019 All-Ireland winning team are permanently missing. There are few bigger than Stephen Cluxton, Jack McCaffrey, and Paul Mannion but then that trio were absent last year too.
Certainly, some of the performance against Kerry and most of the one against Armagh highlights a worrying deficiency in depth. The underage talent coming through just ain’t what it was but it’s in the breeding ground of the league where they have to be exposed.
But come the Leinster semi-final and final and there will be a more familiar look to the team. Add up the number of All-Ireland medals missing from the side that began in Austin Stack Park and the total comes to 42. Take that out of any team… as that tired but true saying goes.
To claim that Dublin are now fodder in Division 1 is not so much inaccurate as a form of cognitive bias. There’s a faint line between believing they are in decline and wishing it. Never mind the group’s winning memory and mentality or the many factors to the contrary, they are deemed a busted flush. “Everyone has an opinion, those who want to twist the knife will do so and I suppose that’s part of the legacy Dublin left over the years,” said Dessie Farrell after Saturday’s game. “We ignore that, we just focus on the work at hand.”
Farrell’s point is well made. “Middling” was how Paddy Christie described the Dublin team he and Farrell were once a part of in the mid-2000s yet because they were Dublin their scalp was prized. Now, as it appears that their graph has dipped, there is overindulging in anticipating their demise.
Obviously, not everything is rosy in the capital. The bush telegraph buzzes with rumours that a comprehensive review of last season and what went wrong never actually happened and the delay in such became a running joke. There is talk that changes players wanted to put into effect never happened and if that is the case then management have a case to answer.
As well as being a fine analyst, Ciarán Whelan remains an excellent source of information on Dublin. It was he who first cast major doubt about Cluxton returning to the set-up last season. Before the game on Saturday, he had expressed doubts about the team that Farrell named starting the game, mentioning James McCarthy’s hamstring injury and Con O’Callaghan hurting himself in a challenge game against Roscommon (it is foolish to believe that Dublin would give Kerry, publishers of the match programme, their starting team days before the game).
Speaking on RTÉ, he suggested standards may have dropped in terms of coaching. “There’s a staleness in how they’re playing the game,” he said. “When Jim Gavin was there, the players were coached to an inch of their lives. They were nearly fed up with it and you just wonder is there that same level of detail. Granted, it’s still very early in the year and they probably haven’t had a lot of time on the training field. Then again, that management team has been there a couple of years.”
Because of the pandemic, the opportunity to go into the minutiae has not been there and perhaps it was with that concern in mind that Dublin returned to training when they shouldn’t have last April.
Farrell was never going to be Gavin. He couldn’t be nor did he want to be. Coming in as late as he did in December 2019 only for Covid to hit three months later, winning the 2020 All-Ireland was an achievement that will only be truly recognised in the
fullness of time.
If this is transition he now oversees, don’t expect it to be long if only because the competition have their own issues. Combined with back-to-back wins for Armagh against the two counties who have won the last seven All-Ireland titles, there is no shortage of observers who seem intoxicated with the possibilities of the most open championship yet.
That is despite Kerry again disappointing in a second half (scoring one point, even against that gale, doesn’t exactly sound like game management). Despite Tyrone losing a handful of useful auxiliaries and their wicked All-Ireland hangover habit. Despite Mayo losing yet another starlet to injury. Despite Michael Murphy’s latest setback. Despite Monaghan again snatching slim pickings from the jaws of victory.
“Dublin are coming down the other side of Everest,” said Whelan on Saturday. He may be right but to have scaled it when so many around them have so often fallen short still carries a lot of weight.
Headlock-gate will be a test case for authority
On Saturday night, David Gough clarified on Twitter that Conor Lane was well within his rights to cancel Dean Rock’s goal in Tralee.
Replying to a query from Colm Parkinson, he quoted: “To consult with the umpires — linesmen and sideline official concerning infringements of the playing rules, in particular rough or dangerous play, striking, hitting or kicking. The ref may apply the appropriate rule following such consultations.”
Gough has been informative on the social media platform in explaining rules, what would happen in certain scenarios and responding to questions from supporters.
His authority has rarely questioned, or that was the case up until last week when Kilcoo successfully contested Aidan Branagan’s sending off against St Finbarr’s in the All-Ireland Club SFC semi-final. Referee Brendan Cawley, after taking the advice of Gough who was linesman, dismissed the Kilcoo vice-captain for his altercation with Adam Lyne. Whether he’s right or wrong, Gough’s judgement will again come under the microscope in front of the Central Hearings Committee (CHC) either this or next week having sent off four Tyrone men and one Armagh player for the spat of headlocks and grapples in additional time of their Division 1 game in the Athletic Grounds.
There would seem strong grounds for his rash of card-showing — Rule 5.21 of the GAA Official Guide Part II states contributing to a melee is a category three offence and a one-match suspension.
However, there is sure to be stiff opposition to his determination from Tyrone co-manager Feargal Logan, who will be mindful of how a repeat fraction for any of the quartet later in the year could double the punishment. Logan knows he can’t cite context and claim Gough’s decisions aren’t consistent with what has gone on in other games where match officials mightn’t be as diligent. The outcome will be keenly awaited.
Pádraic Maher moved with the times
Seven days since Pádraic Maher made his decision, the Tipperary great is no doubt still coming to terms with his enforced retirement from hurling. Speaking about it last week, he was polite as ever but the magnitude of it didn’t appear to have dawned on him.
Another time, Maher might have taken umbrage at being asked who would win between the great Kilkenny team of the 2000s and this current great Limerick side. Another time, he might have intimated he was part of a great team himself, which he surely was, but he let it slide.
Such was the longevity of his career that Maher was able to win All-Irelands in the ages of those two other epoch-defining teams. He accepts Tipperary left one or two All-Irelands behind them but he gave as good as he got against Kilkenny in finals, winning three, drawing one, and losing three. A man who traded on his physique, aerial ability, and crowd-lifting clearances off his back leg, he refined his game in recent seasons to become more of a playmaker.
“Ten or 12 years ago, the ball was being struck out of defence and it was up to the forward to win his ball, whereas now everything is more precise,” he said last week. “There’s a lot more mentally involved in the game now than there was 12/13 years ago.”
Across and between two contrasting era of hurling, Maher’s relevancy never waned. His legend is secured.
Email: john.fogarty@examiner.ie
