Dubs management glad to avoid tricky qualifier route

NOT surprisingly, there is a degree of quiet satisfaction among the Dublin management that their success in winning the GAA Leinster championship for the fourth year in a row was highlighted by arguably their best display of attacking football since Paul Caffrey took over.

However, as selector Dave Billings explained yesterday, the real sense of fulfilment came from actually winning — and avoiding the qualifier route.

Billings, who has spent a lifetime in the game, between St Vincent’s (he was a member of their last winning All-Ireland club team 32 years ago), UCD and various Dublin teams, revealed that their target from the beginning was to first get back to the final. That way they would avoid being implicated in two rounds of the qualifier competition.

Now, they can look forward to another appearance in the All-Ireland quarter-finals, whereas the teams which played in the first round qualifier games on Saturday have to play again next weekend and four of them will face a further hurdle a week later in their bid to make it that far.

“There is a change now with the ‘bottom teams going out’ (and being confined to the Tommy Murphy Cup),’’ he added.

“So, there’s no difference now between losing in the first round of a provincial championship or in the semi-final. You could be playing three weekends in a row, in an open draw, with the risk of injuries and suspensions very high.

“I don’t think a lot of people understood the system. Our target when we saw this coming in was to get to Leinster final and avoid two rounds at least.’’ While the big question posed after Sunday’s Leinster final was how the team was transformed for the second half, what was more relevant was how the team managed to improve so much from the semi-final against Westmeath — when they were far from impressive.

Billings’ explanation was that this had been ‘a real pressurised game’ — for the reason that it meant so much extra for both teams.

And, while the manager referred on Sunday to the fact that their finishing was much better this time, Billings wasn’t impressed by the fact that four times inside the opening 10 minutes the ball was kicked in the Wexford goalkeeper’s hands.

“I count those as worse than a wide, because the other team can start an attack straight away. That would be something you have to work on, for a player to take time to get the range. Putting the ball in the goalie’s hands is a no-no as far as I am concerned.’’ In reference to their second-half dominance — after finishing the first half just three points clear — he felt the margin didn’t reflect their advantage in play. “I thought we should have been seven or eight points in front, but you have to give Wexford credit, they weren’t going to lie down.

Commenting that an involvement in the GAA was ‘a labour of love,’ he pointed out that while they had now claimed five Leinster titles in a seven-year period, in the previous six years they had won none! “That’s progress, but we have to watch the next steps.

“We want to win, obviously and we think we have set the scene to go further. But, you won’t know who you are playing until six days before. We want to set out our stall and play to our strengths. At the same time we need to be cognisant of the strengths of the other teams, that we play the game that suits Dublin best.

“We will take pleasure out of winning on Sunday, but you know you have to be better the next day. That’s our goal — to be better every day. You’ll never reach perfection, but you have to strive towards it.’’ Meanwhile, barring any injury in the meantime, the management will have further options when deciding on their defence, which showed a significant improvement against Wexford. Notably, Colin Moran slotted in very well at full-back (starting after corner-back Stephen O’Shaughnessy failed a late fitness test), but as Billings pointed out, it wasn’t that he was totally new to the position.

“The way the game is played now, it’s no longer three along a line. A player has to be adaptable and mobile. Colin played there in UCD along with the late Cormac McAnallen. We pick the team we think is going to win the game for Dublin and we play to our strengths. ‘Collie’ was there on Sunday, Ross McConnell, Paddy Andrews and Stephen O’Shaughnessy will be in contention for the next day.’’