Versatile Henry a cornerstone in Dublin’s bid for glory

WE’VE all been there, gazing out at a beautifully manicured pitch, soaking in the atmosphere of the heaving stadium and wondering what it would be like. To be out there.

The colours of our dreams may differ – today they will break down into either sky blue or green and gold – but common themes connect them all. In our mind’s eye we imagine what it must be like to score that breathtaking goal, pluck the leather from the ether or tip that thunderbolt around the post.

Few of us contemplate what it would be like to spend the afternoon in the corner of defence, shadowing the opposition’s best man, doing whatever it takes to impede the guy we all paid hard-earned cash to see.

Being a corner-back is nobody’s idea of glamour.

They are the fairytale’s bogeyman. The Fagin. The Wicked Witch of the West.

It’s a role as thankless as it is overlooked but on the vast Croke Park steppe it must feel like being under house arrest. How many wing-backs must have been dragged back there kicking and screaming over the years?

A smile escapes across David Henry’s face when you ask him if he enjoys being Dublin’s number two.

“Enjoy mightn’t be a great word but, to be honest, I enjoy the challenge of it. It’s a position where you could get worked up about it but I don’t think there’s any point. You have to be fairly philosophical about it. If good ball comes in to good forwards there is very little you can do a lot of the time.”

At least he won’t have the worry of Kieran Donaghy being let loose in his back yard today but, for all Kerry’s troubles, he is in for an interesting afternoon no matter who turns up on his doorstep. As always, it will be an unforgiving task. One slip and a season of excellence will be for naught.

“The difference between the better ones is that they don’t have those little slips,” he says. “You have to minimise those mistakes. You just have to try and be as safe as you can back there. If you have a bad start and things don’t go your way early on you just have to keep going and get on with the next ball.”

Henry has been floating around the Dublin panel since 2002 and, though he has been a virtual ever-present in the right corner of defence for the last four seasons, he was afforded a tantalising glimpse of the wider world earlier this year when Pat Gilroy asked him to line out at centre-half forward for the first four league matches.

By late March he was moved back to his old neighbourhood for a trip west to face Mayo and, though he has tried his hand on most lines of the pitch with Raheny, he admits to being that bit more comfortable holding the fort at this rarified level. Gilroy gave Denis Bastick and Alan Hubbard their big breaks in the spring but Dublin were leaking an uncomfortable amount of scores and the balance looks better now that Henry is one corner and Paddy Andrews has followed him back to Bastick’s other side from duties further afield.

If there is one unifying characteristic Dublin’s full-back line share it is their versatility. Even Bastick himself was better known as a midfielder before Gilroy detected the seeds of a man who could solve what has become a perennial problem position for many an inter-county manager, the full-back slot.

“At this level of football you have to be mobile and versatile because you don’t know where you are going to end up on the pitch,” says Henry. “If you look at a lot of the other top teams they have fellas who are well able to play in the other top positions as well. You should be able to play anywhere.”

Stability and continuity is important too. This will be the first time that Dublin have fielded the same starting full-back in successive championship games this summer and the half-back line shows just one change that was enforced by Ger Brennan’s suspension. The contrast with Kerry’s constantly morphing forward unit could hardly be greater.

Dublin as a whole have answered every question asked of them thus far – and they can only be awarded an ‘A’ grade for their response against Kildare when down to 14 men – but their record in August in seasons past will hang over them until they navigate a route through to September.

Two years ago it was Kerry’s turn to deny them entry into the promised land at the semi-final stage and Henry admits to having felt a quiver of excitement when the draw was made last Sunday week, although he dismisses the suggestion that revenge will play a motivating role in their preparations.

“Yeah, I got a bit of a buzz when Kerry came out. I know it was always beyond our control and there was no point in getting too caught up by it but when Kerry came out there was a little bit of a buzz. I’m sure there was a bit of a buzz for the Kerry lads as well when they found out they were going to play against Dublin. These are the kinds of games you want to be playing, against Kerry in Croke Park in a full house at this stage. We don’t need any motivation to play them and I’m sure they feel the same.”