Quinn: We want these games to prove where we stand
HILL 16’s love affair with free-takers is no secret.
The faces of Keaveney, Rock, Redmond and Duff are chiselled into the terrace’s Mount Rushmore but Tomas Quinn remains absent.
Have no doubt, the sea of blue have blessed his name ample times. In 2005, his gargantuan last-minute free won Dublin a Leinster title.
A few weeks later, he booted another late placed ball to force an All-Ireland quarter-final replay with Tyrone.
But they’ve cursed him many a time too.
In 2004, he had to change his mobile number after receiving abusive phone-calls following a forgettable day in a league game in Castlebar. Then there was his four wides from six frees in the Leinster quarter-final draw with Meath in 2007.
He wasn’t dropped for the replay but the dead ball duties were taken off him and handed to Mark Vaughan.
For such a naturally-talented footballer, Quinn hasn’t had it easy.
Under his St Vincent’s team-mate and Dalkia work colleague Pat Gilroy, with whom he won an All-Ireland club title, he’s had fallow spells.
Admittedly, fitness went against him early last year but after starting one championship game in 2010 and making two substitute appearances, he was facing some hard facts.
He admitted: “I was worried. No more than any other player, you feel you can contribute to the team and I was disappointed I didn’t play more last year.
“But the lads were winning and you couldn’t ask for more than what they were doing.”
He added: “The big challenge for me this year was trying to stay fit and I haven’t missed a session yet this year. I did all the training in January, played all of the O’Byrne Cup and it stood to me then coming into the league.
“It gave me an opportunity to prove I was able to play in the system and the style of play.”
In an all-action style of football groomed in his own club, it was ironic Quinn initially found it difficult to fit into it at county level.
But he has adapted superbly this season.
He’s often seen in the half-back line helping out as well as incessantly harassing opposing defenders attempting to clear their lines.
Individuality has taken a back seat in Gilroy’s Dublin and Quinn is happy to accept that.
“I suppose every team has a style of play and 1) the players have to buy into it, and 2) they have to prove they can play in it.
“I think Pat has proved that unless you are able to do what’s best for the team, you’re not going to play.”
No matter if you’re a St Vincent’s player either and should probably know the system better than most. Quinn, Ger Brennan and Diarmuid Connolly represent the club tomorrow but Quinn disagrees that they are scholars of the team’s structure.
“It’s a similar style, it’s probably not the exact same. The big difference was Pat was playing rather than implementing it at the time.
“We obviously talk, and no more than anyone else on the team if we have an opinion we offer it up.
“Pat makes it clear what’s required from certain people. I don’t think they need a huge amount of input from us.”
Quinn takes a different slant on the importance of tomorrow’s clash against Cork.
“We don’t have any recent history in league finals. That’s not a good thing, but it gives us a bit of freedom going into this one.
“The big thing about us is trying to be challenged, and Cork are the best team out there.
“They have proved that in the last 10 minutes of national finals, in both league and championship they can do it. And that’s what we want; we want the opportunity to see if we’re good enough to do that.”
Quinn’s been given one himself. He’s loath to let go of it.
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