Dunne says Offaly took eye off the ball
Hard as it is to process, it is 25 years since Seamus Darby’s goal deprived Kerry of the five-in-a-row in the most famous of all All-Ireland finals and they will return to HQ as the Jubilee team prior to this year’s decider.
Pádraic Dunne won an All-Star to go along with his Celtic Cross that year, as did six of his colleagues, Matt Connor, Martin Furlong, Sean Lowry among them.
Great players, great times.
“The years don’t be long tipping by,” Dunne chuckles, but he and his old team-mates have prepared diligently for the celebrations.
A committee was raised months ago to organise a slew of commemorative events, the pinnacle being a Mediterranean cruise that leaves dock two days after their cameo appearance at the All-Ireland final.
If their successors are to witness the return of Offaly’s most famous footballing sons to Croker in three month’s time, it is likely to be from their seats in the stands.
Carlow await Pat Roe’s team in a Leinster quarter-final clash at Portlaoise tomorrow and, though Offaly are expected to cruise through that, defeat to Meath or Dublin in the last four would consign the county to the Tommy Murphy Cup.
Leinster finalists last year, no-one expects a repeat 12 months on.
“Offaly should win,” says Dunne. “They should be striving to win by five or six points. They won’t beat Carlow by ten or 12 and when you see what is going on elsewhere in Leinster, it is going to be difficult down the line. Meath and Dublin were just fantastic last Sunday.”
Twenty-five years since their greatest triumph, it is ten since the county last got their hands on the provincial trophy and the drought has spread since as Offaly haven’t won a provincial title at minor or U21 level in that time. Like the hurlers, they are paying the price of basking in their glory days when they should have been toiling to replicate them.
“It’s very hard when you are winning, or have won, a lot to keep your eye on the ball,” says Dunne. “There is absolutely no doubt but that the underage structure got 100% left behind in Offaly.
“It’s human nature. You can’t blame anyone. There has been some work been done this past six years and a lot more needs doing besides. At least a start has been made.”
Dunne has played a part in the reconstruction process. Six years ago, the county board approached him and other prominent names and asked them to propose a way forward.
Their answer was a football and hurling academy but it is only in the past 36 months that the wheels have started rolling on the project.
From his perch in Portarlington on the Laois border, Dunne has had a grandstand view of the successes the neighbours enjoyed with the right underage structure. It will be a few more years before the first seeds begin to sprout but he likes the fact that Roe has given youth its head against Carlow tomorrow.
“The situation has improved immensely. I work a lot at underage levels and I wouldn’t say that everything being done is necessarily right but it just needs to be fine-tuned.
“At least there is something happening. It doesn’t happen overnight. You are talking about working with kids as young as ten years of age. We didn’t even look at players over 14 when we started because, harsh as it seems, it was already too late for them.”
Dunne’s fear is that the county is losing it’s race against time. With just one Leinster title in 25 years, and one All Star (Cathal Daly in ‘97) in the same time-frame, the county’s link with it’s glorious past has never been more tenuous.
“It is important that young lads remember their teams winning,” warns Dunne. “I fear that we are going to lose that tradition shortly if we don’t do something in the next few years.”
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