We must improve our discipline, says Dubs selector O’Donoghue

Selector Paddy O’Donoghue admits Dublin’s discipline is not what it should be after deciding not to appeal Bryan Cullen’s one-match ban.

The team captain, who misses tomorrow’s game with Armagh after being cited for a challenge against Laois, is the fourth Dublin player to have either been suspended or cited in the last four games.

Eamon Fennell and James McCarthy both picked up one-match suspensions, the latter dismissed, albeit somewhat harshly against Mayo. Paul Brogan was sent off in the O’Byrne Cup semi-final.

“It’s disappointing,” said O’Donoghue. “We’ve spoken about it for the last couple of games. To be fair, the Mayo match [McCarthy], and the Laois match [Cullen] were probably at the lower end of the scale. They weren’t like boxing fights or anything like that and another committee on another day might have said they were okay. But four-in-a-row is way too much.

“Over the last three or four years there have been very few disciplinary problems and we’ve gone from being exceptional to the other end where we’re very poor at the moment with the sending-offs and the citings. .”

O’Donoghue doesn’t buy into the idea Dublin are reacting to opponents upping the physicality against them.

“Obviously, the intensity of other teams is going up because we’re All-Ireland champions. But, the reality is, if you’re a Dublin player, most teams lift their game anyway. If you’re playing Division 4 football, they’ll be tearing into us because we’re Dublin.”

One player who isn’t prepared to curb his aggression is Craig Dias after breaking into the team. The 21-year-old Kilmacud Crokes man fears if he loses his wing-back berth he mightn’t get it back. “If you get injured, you mightn’t get back in. Cian [O’Sullivan] and Kevin [Nolan] will be itching to get back. They were both nominated for All Stars [Nolan winning one] last year so it’s very tough.”

While his athleticism is well-regarded — his fitness levels are believed to be one of the highest in the panel — he appreciates he has room for improvement.

“Yeah, just my foot-passing. It’s come along a lot this year. I go out half-an-hour before everyone else at training to practice it. For me, I feel that’s where I need to improve the most. It’s the weakest part of my game. And shooting. I have to get on top of that as well.”

That’s not to say Dias has been told he can regularly saunter forward and tack on scores as other half-backs, like Tyrone’s Peter Harte and Down’s Liam Doyle, have been doing.

“Part of the game-plan last year was for backs to hold their position so... not necessarily. If you see it, maybe, you can go once or twice but you try and hold your position.”