Clarke: Dublin settled and ready to progress

THE retention of the same 15 players who started in the Leinster final doesn’t just reflect the satisfaction of the team management with the display in that game.

On the wider front, it can be viewed as a positive indicator of how the Dublin football management view the current status of their team and their state of readiness ahead of Saturday’s All-Ireland quarter-final.

According to selector and former star Paul Clarke, they’re “happy with all the things they are in control of” going into Saturday’s All-Ireland quarter-final with Derry in Croke Park.

“In the last few weeks training has been going very well. We did not finalise the team until this week, but it was very much in our heads that we would stick with what he had.’’

Last year Clarke helped Whitehall to escape relegation and if coaxed back into action, it’ll be his 26th year playing county championship football. He also played on the 1995 All-Ireland winning team with Jason Sherlock.

It doesn’t surprise him that Sherlock is still involved 12 years later, still an influence for good in the forward line, still with an eye for goals.

“He was lucky that he came into the team that we had — a team that was near the end of its time in ways and that wanted something so much. He was young and different and added something to what we had. In fairness, he committed himself to the Gaelic rather than the soccer.’’

The reason Sherlock is still in a position to perform at the highest level is essentially down to the way he “minds” himself, Clarke points out — he has always been aware of preparing for matches properly and for recovering properly. Management, too, play a part by being understanding of the older players needs.

Apart from the Offaly game (which followed the two meetings with Meath), Dublin have performed at a fairly consistent level so far. Clarke says that while the management expects a certain standard, “the ultimate thing” is to get results.

“If you play the perfect match in the first round of the championship, that’s probably not going to be much use to you. You have to see the team develop and get better and hopefully save your best game until the biggest game.

“If you asked the guys after the Mayo defeat last year, the wish would have been to get back to the quarter-final or semi-final stage, to correct the wrongs and improve. And, if along the way we won a Leinster title, so be it. It was a great feeling to get three in a row. That was part of the progress as well.

“Sometimes there’s a thin line between winning and losing. We have lost a lot of matches by one point and what that means is that there is only something small that we have to correct in the preparation of the team. And we have been trying to do that. Come Saturday if we win by a point we’d be quite happy, but not to lose by a point!

“At the end of the day the only factors that can influence performances are your own. You don’t know about weather conditions, you don’t know about referees and you can only do a bit of homework on the opposition. But, you know your own players; you know their strengths or weaknesses.’’

Derry’s progress has impressed him, based on his judgement that they are “definitely coming good after being quiet last year”.

The bottom line, he points out, is that Derry have had “a good run of victories against good opposition” since losing the Ulster semi-final — it brings them into Saturday’s game “in very good form.”