McCarthy aiming to make it third time lucky

We’re under no illusions how tough the next match is going to be and we know we have to really up our performance

James McCarthy resurfaced in the capital yesterday looking fit and fresh after Dublin’s four-day training camp in Dingle, but it was two trips to another of the island’s extremities which are exercising his mind in the run-up to their All-Ireland semi-final next month.

Back in February, the wing-back was shown a straight red card for a disputed foul on Mayo’s Alan Freeman whilst in possession of the ball and, though the game was abandoned due to fog at half-time, his sending-off and subsequent suspension still stood.

The Dubs returned to Castlebar seven weeks later hoping to finish a job which had been postponed at a time when they held a three-point lead, but they departed under a similar cloud after a thumping 12-point defeat to their next opponents.

“Yeah, I don’t have many happy memories of playing Mayo this year,” admitted the Ballymun Kickhams defender who was on hand at Parnell Park to launch Under Armour’s high performance Cotton Storm range.

“On their day, Mayo can beat anyone. They’re playing lovely football this year and James Horan’s a very good manager. We’re under no illusions how tough the next match is going to be and we have to really up our performance if we want to stay in the championship.”

Memories of the famous 2006 All-Ireland semi-final between the counties will surface thick and fast in the coming weeks but such stories carry little weight among two teams who will unveil no more than a handful of survivors from that contest later this month.

McCarthy was still just a teenage schoolboy at the time and watched the drama unfold from a seat in the Hogan Stand alongside his parents and his understated manner is typical of the new breed of Dublin footballers who have arrived on the scene since.

Six years ago, the touchpaper was lit by Mayo’s cheeky decision to warm-up in front of Hill 16 and the flames were fed further by manager Paul Caffrey’s riposte when he sent his troops into the same half of the pitch before jostling John Morrison in the back.

Such antics have been chased from the premises by Pat Gilroy and McCarthy summed up the new approach when asked how Dublin would respond to a similar gauntlet on September 2. “I’d say we’d go down the other end. It wouldn’t bother us at all. It wouldn’t be a big deal.”

Different men, different times.

Conor Mortimer scored five points for the Connacht side that day. Andy Moran came on as a substitute for James Nallen and bagged another. Both have been Mayo’s billboard forwards in recent years and yet neither will bother the All-Ireland champions this summer.

For very different reasons, of course.

McCarthy’s path crossed with Mortimer’s at DCU but didn’t bite when the conversation turned to the Shrule-Glencorrib man’s self-imposed exile from the county panel while the impact of Moran’s injury absence is one that no opponent can talk down.

“All of them are very dangerous,” he offers on those attackers who will line up. “All six of them are capable of scoring goals. Kevin McLoughlin scored a great goal last year. You have to watch Kevin going forward. We’ll have to be on our toes in the backs.”

The consensus is that Dublin will prevail but nothing about their stumbling summer thus far lends itself to that being anything like a certainty whatever about Mayo’s personnel losses and potential limitations.

Gilroy and his squad have packed their bags before, taking in trips to Celtic’s training base in Glasgow and the McLaren Formula One factory in England, but the timing of their latest venture to the Kingdom is interesting.

Dublin trained but they chilled, too. They saw Fungi the Dolphin and paid a visit to Paidí Ó Sé’s pub in Ventry where they met the great man himself and when they came back they were given four days’ grace from the paddock.

McCarthy gave it all the thumbs up and expressed a desire to make the journey again during the off-season which could well begin sooner rather than later if their game doesn’t click against James Horan’s side in three weekends’ time.