Netminder Maguire focused on keeping Dublin at the top

STRANGE days these for Gary Maguire.

Time was when he was regarded as a decent goalkeeper on a less-than-decent team.

There were occasions when the likes of Kilkenny’s Martin Comerford would look for his jersey with a word or two of praise after the Dublin number one managed to stop three of his shots in a league game but unable to do anything about the other two.

Now the plaudits from opponents don’t sound so charitable.

“Before, Dublin weren’t really a threat,” recalls Maguire. “Playing Dublin was more of a challenge game than a serious, competitive game.

“We’re looked upon differently now. There’ll be no banter during games as there might have been years ago.”

Much of that, of course, has to do with the attitude taken by manager Anthony Daly. After giving Tipperary a God-awful fright in their All-Ireland semi-final, he was furious with the amount of “hard lucks” that came his way.

He made his feelings felt on a subsequent Sunday Game programme. To him, the back-pats resembled something of the perception held of Dublin hurling in years gone by.

That sentiment is shared by the players. “He’s a passionate man, he puts his heart and soul into the team. You could say he wears his heart on his sleeve. He doesn’t hide any emotion. He’d be angry and shout and roar. What you see is what you get with him, basically.

“He doesn’t like consolation but we’re all like that. At the start of the year, we set out to reach an All-Ireland final and we didn’t get there. You could look at it as a bit of a failure but there were positives along the way.”

Daly’s fury extended to the All Stars too. The county had their biggest ever representation on the team in Maguire and Liam Rushe. But the Clarecastle man felt they merited more.

“Yeah, he wasn’t happy with one or two. Definitely, Peter Kelly had a big shout. Not playing at full-back all year, maybe that counted against him.”

Maguire has never known anything like the dedication put in last year. Training for almost the entire month of January, the sacrifices made, that seemingly everlasting feeling of being drained after a session... it was all worth it because there was something tangible at the end of it.

A first Division 1 league title since 1939, a first All-Ireland semi-final in 63 years... records fell and history was defied.

“It’s probably the most committed team that I’ve been on,” reckons the Ballyboden St Enda’s man. “There was no real social life last year. It was basically seven days a week, full-time stuff. You might have taken a day off here and there in the past but there were no days off last season.

“Everyone realises it’s going to take a massive effort to reach an All-Ireland final. The element of surprise is definitely gone with us. We’re a team to beat now as well. Next year has huge challenges for us.”

With the same strength and conditioning, sports psychological and dietary structures there to complement Daly’s work with them on the field, Dublin won’t be looking for excuses in 2012 because they won’t find any.

Yes, the likes of injured duo Conal Keaney and Stephen Hiney will be missing for the start of the season but then they were missing against Tipperary and their replacements performed admirably.

Maguire doesn’t look back on that game as a lost opportunity. Rather, he prefers to wait until this time 12 months to rank what any other person would regard as his best season between the posts for his county.

“It all depends on next year,” he argues. “You’d probably look back on 2011 as progress if we go on to do something next year but if next year’s a flop we’ll be looking back with regret.

“As long as people step up to the plate and put in the effort and more, we’re definitely good enough to do it.”