Caffrey working hard to contain expectations

DON’T ever play poker with Paul Caffrey.

Minutes after his team had blown Laois and all the pre-match predictions out of the water with a 14-point victory, the Dublin manager stood in front of the media throng without a hint of emotion on his face.

Caffrey knows Dublin supporters and he knows newspapers. After this display, his lads will be virtually unbackable for Leinster, their odds for the All-Ireland will have been slashed and Arnotts will be selling jerseys by the truckload.

Caffrey has sheltered his players from the inevitable hype all year and it continued yesterday after the game. He commanded an almost military-style operation that succeeded in allowing the team slip quietly out of their dressing room while their boss was stonewalling the press further down the corridor.

“It was a good Dublin performance,” said Caffrey with breathtaking understatement. “I’m happy enough with the victory. I didn’t expect us to be as good today and I didn’t expect Laois to be as poor.

“That’s the type of performance we look to aspire to every time we go out — National League, championship, challenge matches.”

Caffrey’s caution is understandable from a number of angles, not least because the poverty of the Laois challenge begs the question of just how good Dublin actually are. Would they look this good against Tyrone? Kerry? Even Offaly or Wexford?

Still, you beat what is put in front of you and Caffrey won’t have much to quibble about when he pulls up a chair and watches the game again on DVD.

“It was a good all-round display by Dublin today,” he agreed. “A lot of fellas got to the pitch of it early. The first-half was nip and tuck the whole time. There wasn’t much in it. As we know lads, goals change games and that goal made a huge difference.”

As did the departure of Clancy after 23 minutes of play where he left Ciaran Whelan, Shane Ryan and, it must be said, his partner Noel Garvan deep in his considerable shadow. Caffrey acknowledged the part the Laois midfielder’s misfortune had in writing the script.

“I’d like to send best wishes to Padraig Clancy. I had the pleasure of working with him this year, with the Leinster team and he was a big loss to Laois when he went off with a shoulder injury. I hope he’s not too badly injured.”

Not that he would admit it yesterday but the Dublin manager must have felt a deep sense of satisfaction — and not a little relief.

After their poor display in Longford, Caffrey took a scalpel to his side and the surgery proved to be more than cosmetic.

“Changes are changes. You put out your best team every day you play. The team we put out against Longford was our best team. The team we put out today was our best team. I don’t take any credit for that.”

He should of course. As the manager, the buck stops with him and he got his calls right.

“Ray Cosgrove has never gone away. He’s a man in form at the moment and that’s why he was picked. He delivered again in a Dublin jersey today and it’s happy days for him,” Caffrey said.

Cosgrove picked up a man of the match award for his efforts but few would have quibbled if it had gone to Conal Keaney.

With Alan Brogan yet to find his best form, the former hurler has become the totem of Dublin’s attack and three of his four points from play came in the first half when the game was still a contest.

Thanks to the “sub saga” earlier in the summer, the winners of Offaly and Wexford will have a much sharper turnaround next Sunday.

“All county teams are trained to a great standard at this time of the year,” argued Caffrey in response to the suggestion that Dublin would benefit from that. “If they play another matchafter one week, or two weeks or three weeks, it doesn’t make any difference.”