Dubs face true test of progress under Pillar

THIS afternoon marks another test of Dublin’s ability and another challenge for a management team that may be running out of time.

While people in the capital and the Royal County may be dreaming about their sides lining up in the All-Ireland SFC final, you can be sure that Paul Caffrey is not looking beyond this afternoon’s quarter-final against Derry.

It’s another of those full-house Croke Park occasions which promise so much but don’t always deliver.

The very same has been said about Dublin themselves in the past, but so far not this year.

They have come through to the last eight after a creditable treble in Leinster which owed much to dismantling Meath in a quarter-final replay.

Apart from not turning on the style in their next outing, against Offaly, little fault can be found with them.

To be fair to Caffrey and his co-selectors, the team has managed to improve from last year, when they did nearly everything right until they lost their way at a crucial stage of the All-Ireland semi-final against Mayo. And, the bitter memory of that failure has helped drive this campaign, helped by the addition of a few new players.

Ross McConnell is young and quite inexperienced, but he has been doing well enough at full-back to suggest that he could stay for the long haul. Overall the defence has been quite consistent, midfielder Ciaran Whelan has been contributing more regularly and there is more of a buzz about the attack. Bernard Brogan has made progress and Mark Vaughan is so far proving a more reliable free-taker than Mossy Quinn.

There remains scope for improvement in the attack, mainly in the full-forward line and specifically Alan Brogan. He is a real talent, but needs to show more vision and creativity. Jason Sherlock, to his credit, continues to be a force in the half-forward line.

I last saw Derry in the Ulster semi-final last year and they were well beaten before going under to Longford in the qualifiers.

This year, after a fairly decent league campaign, they have been performing much better. It was no disgrace to go under to Monaghan in Ulster (in the semi-final), and this time they emerged unscathed from the qualifiers with wins over Armagh, Mayo and Laois.

They will prove formidable opposition for Dublin, mainly because of their scoring potential. Nevertheless, I don’t envisage the home side going under. Dublin are stronger and, have the benefits of their recent experience.