Dublin boss Gavin hunts for consistency to go along with results

If Sam doesn’t reside in Dublin next winter, the likelihood is that last week’s defeat to Tyrone will be pinpointed as the first blip when the season’s narrative is written, the first time Jim Gavin’s men revealed a chink in their armour.

Defeat has always been, and will continue to be, a convenient hook on which to hang accepted wisdoms. One of them, of course, is that old chestnut about defeat providing a better learning platform than victory but Gavin doesn’t sees things in such linear fashion.

“I wouldn’t buy into that,” said the Dublin manager ahead of today’s Allianz League Division 1 meeting with a struggling Down side at Croke Park. “We review quite clinically every performance, victory or defeat.