Dubs must learn from mistakes of 1992

WHAT was the root of Dublin’s demise against Donegal 19 years ago? Depends who you talk to.

According to then manager Paddy Cullen, the seeds were sown by the epic four-game saga against Meath in Leinster the year before.

“If we had beaten Meath in those four games we would have went on to win a few All-Irelands,” appraised the legendary goalkeeper. “I think it damaged the team. They just kind of had a little chink in their armour. You had (Eamonn) Heary, (Keith) Barr, (Paul) Curran on the half-back line, probably one of the best half-back lines ever.

“We had good midfielders, interchangeable midfielders, we had good forwards, good runners, good scorers, good defence and good ‘keeper in John O’Leary.

“People say, ‘Oh they were a young team’. They weren’t a young team, they were a mixture of young and experienced.

“In 1992 we were just beaten on the day. The old story, the real Irish one, but on the day it’s who performs.

“When the curtain goes up you have to dance.”

In captain Tommy Carr’s mind, the portents were bad when an arrogant remark was made by one of his team-mates while they looked on from the Hogan Stand at Donegal’s semi-final victory over Mayo.

“I remember sitting behind a group of Dublin footballers and about three of them left with 10 minutes to go and one of them remarked ‘We’d beat the pick of the two of them’.

“At that moment I felt that was not a good sentiment to leave Croke Park with. That was the beginning of the end because it is very hard to get rid of that view of the opposition.”

Like Sunday’s game, Dublin were heavily fancied to win. As Carr recalled: “We went into that without thinking we could lose and all we could see was the steps of the Hogan Stand and the Sam Maguire cup and the celebrations.

“That’s not a criticism of a manager or the players — it’s an atmosphere that descends on a team that no matter how much you talk about ‘we can’t feel like this’.

“Sometimes when you talk about not taking something for granted the more you start to take it for granted.”

Cullen hasn’t forgotten the criticism he received following the defeat when he was accused of getting distracted by the hype doing things such as advertising washing machines.

“People said ‘you should have done this and you let them into the media scrum’ and all this crap.

“I mean, the media has to make a living too, I always believe that everyone has to make a living.”

In terms of Sunday, he fancies his native county but is worried Donegal could be under-appreciated and Dublin’s old habit of second-half lulls. “Dublin cannot crack midway through the second-half if they’re going well. They cannot crack like they have done before. They can’t afford to do it. They know what happens now.

“They know that there’s a period in the game, mostly the last quarter, when they just crack and they just cannot do that anymore. It’s out of the question. Somebody has to, you know, pull them up by the socks.” Carr is leaning towards the same prediction as Cullen but is just as mindful of how Dublin blew their chance of making last year’s All-Ireland semi-final in the closing stages.

“You could have said last year that they were ready until there were three silly fouls given in the last 10 or 15 minutes. They had Cork beaten, let’s face it. Then the blue mist descended. We know they can play football and they do have the talent, the Brogans, O’Gara and Diarmuid Connolly showed what he could do the last day. It’s whether they can get through tight and tense situations without the blue mist descending.”