Connell: Dubs won’t click into top gear until August

Former Dublin footballer Senan Connell has warned fans not to expect champagne football against Louth.

Boss Pat Gilroy has selected his strongest possible side for their first defence of their Leinster and All-Ireland crowns. But Connell believes there’s little chance of flowing football and claims that, for Gilroy, the Leinster championship is almost an irrelevance.

He says Gilroy’s teams have always saved their best until the All-Ireland series in August and reckons they’ll do just enough to win Sunday’s Leinster quarter-final.

“Don’t expect a performance of the highest peak from Dublin like the last eight minutes of last year’s All-Ireland final,” said Connell at yesterday’s launch of TV3’s Championship coverage.

“It’s not going to be a world beating performance. I’ve mentioned this before and I keep mentioning this – Pat Gilroy is viewing August as the real start of the Championship. That’s what they’re going to peak. They’re still training hard now.”

Connell suggested Gilroy might not actually start Bernard Brogan, despite naming him, after missing the entire league. He’s also interested to see how Dublin’s midfield performs as he expects Stephen Cluxton to be forced to shell them with kickouts.

“Are Louth going to sit in the pockets and prevent Stephen Clxuton’s short kickouts?” asked the ex-forward. “We saw Kerry do that in the first league game. If they do then you need a midfield that can win possession. That’s slightly been Dublin’s Achilles heel in the National League.”

Meanwhile, Kerry legend Darragh Ó Sé has joined Connell as a TV3 pundit this summer. He was also at Croke Park yesterday and revealed younger brother Marc looks set to be fit for Sunday week’s Munster semi-final against Cork.

“He’s good,” reported Darragh. “He’s trained this week and hopefully he’ll go flat out on it over the weekend. He’s short of match practice but he can try to compensate for that with a bit of experience.

“I was speaking to him yesterday and he reckons it’s coming around okay at the right time. Maybe it’s a bit of a blessing in disguise that he missed that Tipperary game.”