Champions can finally find form

It would be pushing it to suggest Pat Gilroy treated the Leinster championship with contempt this summer.

But there would more than just a morsel of evidence to theorise that he didn’t commit all of his attention to the competition.

Exhibit A: Using a whopping 27 different players across those three games. If Dublin cared all that much, the same starting team and bench-men would have been used regularly.

Exhibit B: Former coach Mickey Whelan’s revelation that Dublin didn’t focus on the Leinster SFC last year and his contention that their indifferent form indicates a timed run for the All-Ireland semi-final and final.

Leinster doesn’t engage Dublin as much as it used to. When you’ve won seven of the last eight, that can happen.

So when they were confronted by another team in the province, Laois, in the quarter-final, there was another collective yawn. Laois were all about containment in that game and little else, failing to score from play in the second half.

And not once can we in all honesty say that Dublin looked all that spooked by the opposition, not even when Diarmuid Connolly was sent off in their clash with Wexford, or when Meath staged that late comeback in the Leinster final.

Mayo themselves seem to have paced themselves, if not for tomorrow then certainly for the All-Ireland series.

As coach Cian O’Neill said to this newspaper last month: “You take each hurdle as it comes and then plan appropriately but it’s the third one we’ve been concentrating on.”

This past week, manager James Horan spoke of tomorrow’s fixture as “game four“, a pragmatic way of looking at his team’s summer but also a nod to the fact they remain on course for a final.

The soundings from both camps more than suggest they both expected to be at this stage at the start of their campaigns.

Neither have been truly tested, which makes calling this game a little trickier, but Andy Moran’s loss can’t be understated — his DNA was all over 2-4 of Mayo’s total score before Down surrendered last day out.

Both the captain and Alan Dillon are the only marquee names in the Mayo attack, and his absence is one that can’t be compensated for to the extent that the side can be as strong as they were with him.

Mayo have the slightly better performing midfield coming into the game, although Dublin have auxiliary fielders in Michael Darragh Macauley and Paul Flynn, who will give Stephen Cluxton’s radar more targets to aim for.

Flynn is back to his All-Star form of last year and along with Bryan Cullen, will need to restrict Mayo’s flying half-backs, Lee Keegan and Colm Boyle, as much as cut loose from them when in possession.

Alan Brogan’s return to the Dublin team is rightly heralded but he may be rusty and the onus should fall on brother Bernard and the streaky Diarmuid Connolly to lead their attack.

Both teams subscribe to counter-attack football although Dublin are more acquainted with the procedure of pressuring and breaking using accurate foot-passing to skip hand-phases.

They don’t panic either, which is a fantastic asset to have when Mayo can be expected to dominate swathes of the 70 minutes.

Horan’s veiled comments about Joe McQuillan’s familiarity with Dublin will be viewed dimly by the opposing camp.

They could be used as motivation but they shouldn’t be needed.

The four weeks Dublin have had from the Laois game is time enough to disassociate themselves from their patchy football and perform like the champions that they are.

* Verdict: Dublin