Homan puts Dublin rumours to bed

DUBLIN midfielder Darren Homan has jumped to Tommy Lyons’ defence in the wake of last week’s heavy defeat to Mayo and has called on the players to stand up and be counted against Kerry in Parnell Park on Sunday.

The Dublin manager was booed from the pitch in Castlebar after the county went down to their most abject defeat in recent times. The five days since have seen any amount of theories emerging on why a team that could grind out a spirited win against the All-Ireland champions could sink without trace one week later.

Homan, for one, is sick of the armchair experts' views. "The preparation for the Tyrone game was exactly the same as the preparation for the Mayo game," the Round Towers midfielder pointed out yesterday. "People were talking about travelling the night before and sleeping in different beds in hotels and the effect that might have had on players, or would it be better to travel on the day? That's bull***t.

"We put out the same team as we had against Tyrone, apart from Senan Connell, who was suffering from concussion. The fault was entirely down to the players. Collectively, nobody showed leadership yet it was the management who took all the flak when all of us players know it was down to us."

In his five years on the senior Dublin panel, Homan has seen the public and media swing from hyperbolic elation to the pits of depression over the capital's performances. Even still, experiencing both in the space of just one short week and at the start of February at that is even harder to take for this recently qualified, straight-talking fire fighter.

"We were built up for a huge fall after the Tyrone game," he said. "Then after last week we had people say we couldn't win away from Parnell Park, which is baffling. It does get to you at times. At the end of the day, the media can only write what's there to be written and we need to produce results that don't give anyone the opportunity to say these things, whether they're right or not." For the former Ballyboden/St Enda's stalwart, all this brouhaha in early spring is a bit of an eye opener. Homan is an habitual late starter when it comes to a new season and it may be that he suffered for it in years past, never quite managing to nail down his slot in the Dublin midfield in the manner Ciaran Whelan has done. This year is different.

"Usually, this isn't the time of year for me to be playing much at all," he admitted. "This time last year I was in heavy training for the fire brigade and I wasn't really playing at all. The heavy pitches don't suit me at all. I'm usually like a 46A turning this time of the year but I've worked harder on being fitter for the start of the league."

Homan's hunger for action on these cold, short evenings is symbolic of a team looking to make more of an impression on the NFL than it has managed of late. It's 11 years since John O'Leary last claimed a Division One title for Dublin. With that in mind, Homan and the rest of the current set-up are looking at this weekend's tie against Kerry as a step towards qualifications for the semi-finals, rather than one away from relegation.

"We weren't starting out in the league looking for relative safety. We started out looking to win the league. So, yeah, winning home games in important but we were looking to win all our games this year," Homan insisted. "A lot of people were saying beforehand that four points from the first three games would be great, but not us. Kerry is a big game for us now though, especially after all the criticism we took in the press. That's usually when we're at our best. What we need to find now is a level of consistency."