‘Fresh start’ leaves Gilroy in no man’s land
The problem now is that they have a manager in Year Two trying to do what should have been done four seasons ago, and, as their 2006 conquerors Mayo are also finding out, the cleanest cut would have been the soonest healed.
The final two years of Pillar’s reign were spent gorging on virtually meaningless Leinster titles, and Pat Gilroy, too, should have gone for broke last year. He didn’t have to endure the personal indignity of the Kerry walloping to make up his own mind.
Last year was Gilroy’s best chance to shape a new team.
There was more than sufficient evidence from the last days of the previous regime to make it blindingly obvious that Dublin needed to rip it up and start again if they were to become genuine contenders for ultimate honours. For three years in a row – 2006-2008 – the evidence stacked up, and it was compelling.
We suspect Gilroy’s greatest regret as Dublin manager will be that he didn’t sweep with a new brush last season, and be done with it.
Now he finds himself in a kind of no man’s land, where he is keen to embark on a fresh start, but, as yesterday illustrated, still requiring remnants of the old brigade whose capacity to win matches in the Leinster championship is beyond dispute.
Paradoxical though it may sound in the aftermath of this flirtation with disaster, Dublin can’t afford to train their eyes only on the mid-station that is the Leinster championship.
Gilroy knows this. He is acutely aware that they simply had to dismantle a reasonably good side, and run the risk of becoming a lesser side in the short-term, if they were to entertain any hope of completing the task he was recruited to perform.
The sight of Tomas Quinn and Bryan Cullen playing central roles in this piece of Croke Park escapology won’t have filled every Dublin heart with glee.
Gilroy has never struck us as an individual with a particularly large ego, but, even still, he must be underwhelmed this morning by the thought of his great act of rebuilding only reaping some benefit in Year Three – and the value of it being gained by the ‘next man in.’ Yes, ‘next man in’, that’s where the money-shots will be for Dublin. The last embers of the old team will have been doused at last, and this year’s highly-impressive U21 team will be a year or two older and wiser.
Plus expectations will have been lowered, too. The ‘next man in’ will assume control at a perfect time.
Contrast Gilroy’s position with the vista now opening up in front of Clare hurling manager Ger O’Loughlin.
He genuinely had the courage of his convictions. He placed trust in the emerging generation, and, as so often happens, they responded to the investment of faith.
Now, presuming that his cubs again show up well in the Qualifiers, O’Loughlin can look forward to Years Two and Three with considerable optimism.
The rationale invariably invoked for holding onto players who have been found wanting at the highest level is that they, to quote the vernacular, “will help the young lads coming through.”
The opposite is often the case. Their lingering presence serves only to impair the development of the younger players. Every year that passes, the problem worsens: leave it too long and you end up with players of all ages damaged and disillusioned.
You’re neither here nor there.
By not doing the right thing last year, Gilroy has condemned his Dublin reign to mid-table mediocrity. Public confidence in him is draining away.
At the best of times, many supporters fail to understand why players who have won a number of provincial titles must be sacrificed for the greater good: but when the greater good reveals itself in the form of a pathetic display like yesterday’s, they are utterly perplexed.
Without any significant managerial air-miles on his account, Gilroy’s term will now be damaged by corrosive criticism in the media and on the streets.
All eyes now on the ‘next man in’, therefore.
