One more spin of the Whelan?

ALL over the capital, chests are being used as billboards for Arnotts. Natural order has been restored. The sky-blue buzz has returned with Dublin back in a Leinster final.

And one player above any other is generating fevered debate in northside watering-holes. Ciaran Whelan. The great metropolitan enigma. Things are going well and Whelan, we’re told, is an unstoppable force of athleticism driving the Dubs forward. Things aren’t going so well and Whelan is over-rated, lazy and not doing his bit.

“When Dublin football is going well, things are over-exaggerated and over-hyped and when things are down, it is exactly the same,” says the midfielder, who might as well be talking about his own career.

“That’s what I know from playing with Dublin. It is up to players to learn to ignore that, all the hype and everything. There is no middle ground. Win and you are the greatest in the world. Lose and you are the worst in the world. It’s just something you have to live with.”

Last year, the Hill didn’t have a lot of time for Whelo. Tommy Lyons, in a last-ditch attempt to wring all the potential from Whelan’s combination of pace and power, placed him at centre-forward. It was a disaster. He was accused of not putting in the effort, selectively forgetting he has always been a midfielder, since he first began kicking ball in Raheny.

“I was playing a lot of my football on the 40 last year,” sighs Whelan. “And I had simply no idea, no inkling as to what to do at centre-forward. I have played midfield since I was 8 and suddenly at 28, being asked to play centre-forward in county football. I don’t know.”

He pauses for a moment. “If I wasn’t good enough to be playing in the middle last year, maybe I should have been on the bench, to be honest, rather than being tried on the 40.”

Whelan on the bench? Imagine the ammunition the Hill would aim at Lyons had that Westmeath defeat came while Whelan was resting on the sideline. Still, Dublin gave the impression they couldn’t wait for last summer to be over, even if Whelan watched his shot come off the crossbar with the All-Ireland quarter-final with Kerry delicately poised.

They played their football in the shadows last year, away from the Hill. And despite the novelty of visiting places like Leitrim, Dubs weren’t meant to travel. “It was tough, being away from Croke Park. The qualifiers aren’t a pleasant place to be. It is like discovering Ireland. It doesn’t have the same atmosphere as playing in front of the Hill.”

That’s where they are this year, back in front of the Hill and winning games. Not only winning games, but coming back from the brink against Wexford, out-battling Meath in a clash of attrition. Victories that brought a sniff of a Leinster title in the nostrils of the Hill.

“In those two games we showed a bit of character, but all the character and momentum means nothing when it comes to a Leinster final. That’s a different ball-game, all you have to do is remember the Laois performance against Kildare to remind yourself of that.”

In the past, a lot of criticism of Whelan centred on there being too little edge for his game with all the testosterone flying around midfield. He certainly can’t be accused of that this year. He has yet to shrink from a challenge. Indeed, the new edge is threatening to re-define Whelan.

There was John Bannon’s decision not to send Whelan off in the opening seconds against Meath. Whelan shrugs at that, says it was the referee’s prerogative.

Okay, on to Wexford and the Leinster semi-final. A wild swing with his leg garnered only yellow. A few minutes later, a clothes-line saw him dismissed for the first time in championship football.

“Fair enough, my discipline has been poor this year. But, that red card against Wexford was my first in ten years of championship football. Maybe I am playing with a bit more aggression this year, but I am happy with my football for the first time in a couple years. If being more aggressive makes me a better footballer, so be it.

“I’ll be the first to hold my hands up and say ‘yeah I have made a few stupid tackles, done one or two things I shouldn’t have’, but there was no malice or intent in them. I am going to be more careful from here on in.

“Pillar (Paul Caffrey) never really asked me to play more aggressively, it is just something I thought I needed to do myself. And I am happy with the way I have been playing.”

Whelan has his own opinions on the “what’s to be done with football” debate.

“Officials have to find middle ground. One week, everyone is getting sent off. The next week, nobody is. There has to be consistency.

“These things highlighted by certain pundits on telly, about discipline, that puts pressure on the powers-that-be and referees. It is ridiculous ignoring the skills of the games and focusing on one issue.

“Why don’t they start highlighting the things fellas are doing well week-in, week-out. Take Colm Cooper against Limerick, he was highlighted on the Sunday Game for a bit of argy-bargy with the Limerick lad. Yet, he scored 2-5. Why not highlight the goals he scored? It means the game is not being portrayed in a positive light and that might have a knock-on effect, parents might be reluctant to let their kids play football.”

Whelan seems happier with his football this year, mirroring his team once again. There had been other summers where he has thought about walking away form it all.

“I have thought about jacking it in plenty of times. Definitely. But something keeps you going. Whether it be a bad performance or you see young fellas coming through. I am at the age now where I have to treat every game as if my last. You don’t know what is around the corner. I am that stage where a horrific injury means I might never get back to Croke Park.”

So, Whelo arrives back in a Leinster final for the first time since that hectic summer of 2002 when the buzz was sky-blue and tremendous. A more aggressive Whelo, more determined than ever not to go walkabouts during the second half. More determined than ever to clutch another Leinster medal.

“This Leinster medal, if we win it, will mean much more than the last one. As you get older, you appreciate them more. Every game could be your last, every medal could be your last. The years are catching up.”

Does he feel the breath of retirement on his neck?

“I don’t think about things like that. At the start of the year, my aim was to get into Pillar’s first fifteen and put Dublin football back where it belongs.”

In a Leinster final, of course. As it is always meant to be, as they will tell in these days of a sky-blue buzz.