Time is now for Dublin’s Easter rising

THIS, we are told is good for the GAA. The goose that lays the golden egg versus the All-Ireland and League champions.

Sat, 23 Apr, 2011 - 01:00

Yet for all the romance of having Dublin in a league decider for the first time since 1999, it will only be good for the game if the match itself lives up to the billing and, more pertinently, if Dublin win.

While the merits of winning a league title are self-evident for both sides, there is a sense that the need is greater in Dublin.

For that reason and for a host of other reasons such as the promotion of the game and the good-natured audacity of their supporters, there will be a lot of people who will be willing the Dubs to win their ninth league title tomorrow.

Should they finish out the league campaign unbeaten, it would be a huge boost for them as they roll towards a championship bout in six weeks time with either of two teams who share Croke Park with them this weekend, Laois or Longford. It is doubtful that defeat would have a demoralising effect on Dublin as they have already beaten Cork in this year’s campaign and there are examples of teams losing league finals and going on to better things in championship — Down losing the Division Two final last year being the most celebrated recent example. But the incentives and imperatives for winning are greater on Liffeyside than on Leeside.

Some silverware would frank an already satisfying spring series and considering that he has an entire team who’ve never won any silverware at national level, Pat Gilroy would welcome a tangible reward from this year’s league.

Dublin’s team selection is significant. After playing six of the seven rounds, Seán Murray finds himself on the sideline for tomorrow’s match — not, we suspect, because of any obvious lapse in form but perhaps because the previous ties were for experimentation and tomorrow’s game is for winning.

Paul Brogan gets his third consecutive start at full-back. This has to be viewed as either a further chance for Brogan to bed in or an opportunistic selection designed to give enough rope to a untried full-back. Some will argue that Dublin’s entire full-back line is suspect on individual merits but systemic know-how and the work-rate of those outside them has seen the full back-line concede respectable enough scores in six of their seven games.

It would appear that Denis Bastick, having played all seven games at midfield, is going to be tried once again against the biggest and one of the best midfields in the business — just to see if his partnership with Michael Darragh McAuley could offer more in terms of physicality than combinations tried up to now.

Ross McConnell and Eamon Fennell are still recovering from injury, Barry Cahill has moved back to his natural habitat, Seán Murray is still learning and Darren Magee looks like he’ll always be the option of last resort if and when he returns from injury. Tomorrow’s partnership could well be Gilroy’s championship choice but if Rory O’Carroll returns from his studies abroad in any reasonable shape he is still the best option at full-back.

When it comes to selecting full-backs from what has become a menu of endangered species Cork’s selection tomorrow, Michael Shields, is the best in show. He has been tried out a few times during the spring campaign in the corner (conspiracy theorists in Kerry believe he is best equipped to curtail Gooch and spring grooming does him no harm) and his detail tomorrow is going to require him to do the same job he did last year on Bernard Brogan. Many people point to Brogan’s performance against Cork in last year’s championship semi-final as the one that secured him the player of the year award. That may well be the case but what is forgotten is that the St Finbarr’s defender marked Brogan about as well as anyone could and he had much to do with Brogan’s crucial late rushed shot off his left leg kicking into the Hill 16 goal.

Good defenders force forwards into doing what they’d rather not and Shields is one of the best in the business in this regard. Diarmuid Connolly is started for the fifth successive game at full-forward after the first three games on the wing but even if he was held scoreless two weeks ago against Galway, this has still been a campaign of progress for the St Vincent’s man. Jamie O’Sullivan will probably pick him up from the throw in tomorrow and there is potential to be exploited in this match-up for Dublin.

Eoin Cadogan’s presence will be sorely missed in the full-back line but his absence affords Ray Carey and O’Sullivan the chance to convince Cork people of their credentials come championship time. Cork appear sufficiently encouraged by Ken O’Halloran’s form in goal throughout the league to allow him resume duty between the sticks and of all the relative newcomers (and despite all talk of Cork’s strength in depth) O’Halloran represents Cork’s most viable championship option from those who’ve auditioned since early February.

Alan Quirke has now missed an entire league campaign, and even against Dublin last year, I thought he showed a distinct lack of confidence in his midfield by going short to the corner backs early and often. Whether acting on instruction or otherwise, it was a curious approach, given the centrefielders they have. When they did put it out direct after Nicholas Murphy’s introduction, they got the results. Murphy is starting tomorrow and O’Halloran’s addressing of kickouts will be watched with great interest.

Irrespective of the outcome, when the championship talk starts on Monday morning, the old question will rear its head: How good are Dublin? Despite an unbeaten seven match run, the honest answer is we really don’t know. When all the action finished last year, and we indulged in some winter talk back in West Kerry, I would’ve had Dublin as favourites for Sam in September. Now? I’m not so sure. This might seem strange given their almost unblemished 2011 record, but I thought they’d have made more progress by now than they actually have. Of the starting line-up tomorrow, only Cluxton, Cahill and Brogan are serial championship performers. Cork, despite all their absentees, have three times that number — Shields, O’Leary, Miskella, Kissane, Murphy, Kelly, Goulding, Donncha O’Connor and Sheehan will not be found wanting.

What we have got from Dublin this spring has been a mixture of earnest mediocrity, well-choreographed excellence and something in between that we’re not quite sure of. Surviving the loss of momentum at different stages of different games during the league has perhaps been their greatest achievement in 2011 so far. They seem capable of so much more though, and to borrow Henry Ford’s truism- “you can’t build a reputation on what you’re going to do”. The league trophy in Dublin would enhance reputations and sure, it would be good for the game too! Dublin to win.

HOW THEY LINE UP

CORK V DUBLIN

Ken O'Halloran 1 Stephen Cluxton

Ray Carey 2 Michael Fitzsimons

Michael Shields 3 Paul Brogan

Jamie O'Sullivan 4 Philly McMahon

Noel O'Leary 5 Barry Cahill

John Miskella 6 Ger Brennan

Paudie Kissane 7 Kevin Nolan

Alan O'Connor 8 Denis Bastick

Nicholas Murphy 9 Michael Darragh Macauley

Pearse O'Neill 10 Paul Flynn