Quiet man Goggins silences the critics

TOMMY LYONS couldn’t resist. Dublin had just demolished Donegal and he was in particularly jocular mood. His captain, whose face had adorned the media dart board in the immediate aftermath of the drawn game, had a stormer.

The Dublin manager wondered aloud what the gathering hacks had to say about Coman Goggins now.

Nervous laughter was the only murmur. After his five points the first day, Adrian Sweeney’s every step was shadowed in the replay. To take the pressure off his captain, Lyons played a ruse on the public. Peadar Andrews was handed the number four shirt, Goggins moved out to the wing. Like most things Lyons has tried this summer, it worked a treat.

“Nobody thought I’d be marking Sweeney, but I knew. Tommy wasn’t going to let me off that easily,” Goggins says. “The first day, I certainly merited a few of the comments I got. We didn’t perform and the

media is there to write what they see. Maybe there was pressure there in the replay, but personally, I didn’t feel under any more pressure.”

The performance of Goggins in the replay was typical of a transformed team. Every player in a Dublin shirt grafted for each other, leaving no blade of Croke Park untouched. Pressure, consistent pressure, starting right at the back.

“The replay was certainly one of my better games for Dublin. Things went well, I got the bounce of the ball, but that is because fellas worked better up the field than they have done at any other stage of the championship. If a corner back has a 50/50 chance, he might always have a good game.

Each game brings a new challenge. Tomorrow is about Steven McDonnell. A different sort of challenge to Sweeney. Not as physically imposing, McDonnell relies on quick thinking and an ability to use both feet to engineer his scores.

While defence has been the nucleus of this Armagh side, Goggins is aware of their attacking talent.

“People talk about their defence, but they haven’t got to this stage without scoring. Oisin McConville has had a huge year, Steven McDonnell is having a great year.

“The biggest challenge for a defender when you are coming with the ball, is the amount of pressure Armagh forwards will put us under.

Goggins has noticed subtle changes in the team over the past few weeks. Before the Donegal game, perhaps there was a sense of self satisfaction. Leinster title in their first year and all that. Targets changed drastically over the course of August.

Despite the favourites tag, Goggins is under no illusions Armagh will emerge from the tunnel as eager and hungry as the Dubs. “If both teams were to set their stall out at the start of the year and we were given a Leinster title we would have taken it.

For Armagh, this year has been about the All-Ireland title or nothing. They have already proven themselves to be the best team in Ulster.”

The media overdrive won’t help matters, either. Both on the blue and orange side. While, it has all been sweetness and flowers for Dublin, Armagh have come across as the ugly sisters of the championship who can never win at Croke Park. Goggins is wary of the perception.

“If Joe Kernan opens a paper to his team and shows all the stuff that has been written, all he has to ask his players is to look at that and tell me you are not motivated for this game. Everyone is talking about their Croke Park jinx.

The interest in the media springs not just from being beaten up badly by hacks after the first Donegal match, but the fact that Goggins was a hack himself at one time. These days, he earns his crust in the financial sector, realising being a county footballer and GAA writer wasn’t an easy career path to follow.

Still, he enjoys reading the different stories spun by the championship. Given that, was there an extra incentive for him to prove himself in the replay against Donegal.

Tomorrow, he will lead the team around Croker for the fifth time this year. He is just about getting used to being captain at this stage, he certainly comes across as one of the most articulate county players in the country.

In the dressing room, he leaves the talking to Tommy and guys like Dessie, who have been through the mill. “On the pitch, I might have a few words, that would be about it. You worry about your own job.”

The Dublin support this week has been astounding. Flags and banners are decorating the suburban estates. The city has never seen hype like it.

“The interest has been incredible this year. I don’t know what spurred it this year, Tommy is a factor and so is the Leinster title. But even in 95, the interest wasn’t like this.” “We won’t have a monopoly tomorrow, the noise levels will still be high and the Hill will be blue, but the Hill will only be behind you as much as we are pressurising Armagh or how well things are going,.

“If things aren’t going well, the Hill aren’t going to get behind you. So, it is a matter of the team getting it right on the day.”

Just like the last day. One thing is for sure. Coman Goggins won’t be painted as a dodgy defender so swiftly again.