McCaffrey confident as Dublin learn to lose the fear factor

‘Those who don’t know history are destined to repeat it’, said the great 18th century Irish philosopher, Edmond Burke. His words have obviously been taken to heart by another Dubliner, hurler Johnny McCaffrey.

In 2011, Dublin seemed on the cusp of greatness, a first national title since 1939 when mighty Kilkenny were toppled in the Allianz League final. Then came 2012, stumbling through a winless league, relegated after a heavy replay loss to Galway, then tumbled out of the Leinster championship (another heavy defeat, this one against Kilkenny), tumbled out of the All-Ireland series two weeks later when going down to 14-man Clare in Ennis.

McCaffrey and Dublin could have decided to simply forget all that, pretend it all hadn’t happened and just face forward. Or they could look back and learn. They decided on the latter, after the Ennis loss especially. “It took a good few months, a lot of soul searching. We met in September to try and trash out a few things.”

When they did, they realised things weren’t as bad as they appeared. Yes, they had gone down badly in their two championship games, in different ways. Hammered by Kilkenny, then giving up a lead to understrength Clare, that was a bad end to the season but it hadn’t been all bad. “Our performances were quite good in the league but the results didn’t happen (drew with Tipperary, lost by a point to Kilkenny and Cork)... Eventually we fell flat against Kilkenny and with only a two-week gap, it was hard to pick ourselves up for the Clare game.”

They looked back, they learned; then, and only then, failures analysed and isolated, they looked forward with renewed determination. “When the new year came we were delighted to scrap 2012 and get ready for 2013. A lot of lads are around a good while, we’ve been through the good days in 2011 and the bad days in 2012 so you’re using those experiences every day you go out and hope that they benefit you in the matches.”

It’s working, so far anyway, three titles already won this year. It started with the Walsh Cup, then the league division 1B crown and promotion; topping it all, a first Leinster title in 52 years, Wexford, Kilkenny (both after replays) and Galway beaten in a frantic but fruitful five-game four-weeks from June 8 to July 7.

In previous seasons that Leinster final win would have been celebrated long and hard in Dublin. Not this year. Again, learning from the past. “Even when we beat Galway, while we were delighted to get the win we realised that we’re not going to be around too long, careers end. We enjoyed the couple of days after the Galway game but then we got the head down again.”

Now they look forward to tomorrow, and again they can draw from experience. Cork were at this stage last year and lost to Galway; Dublin were there in 2011 and though shorn of a number of big players through injury, gave reigning All-Ireland champions Tipperary a hell of a test before succumbing. “It was a new thing getting to the semi-final two years ago, a great experience. We were missing a few key lads and we were going in to try to contain Tipp. Tipp were on such an upward curve it was going to take an unbelievable performance to win but we were hopeful.”

The days of Dublin going out to contain are gone. “We know we can compete now. I think we’re more in control of ourselves, of what we do. We know if we put in a big performance we’ve a chance of winning the game.”

This is no disrespect to Cork. “Jimmy Barry-Murphy has done a great job with this team over the last two years, their second semi-final in a row. He’s brought in a lot of new fresh faces when another manager might have stuck with the previous players who had served Cork so well. They have repaid him now with the performance they have put in. They're playing a lot more direct. They’re trying to get fast ball into their forwards who have great pace and are looking to take on their men at every opportunity. Their backs mark very tight and give no space to opposition forwards. I expect an open game of hurling with both teams looking to play off the front foot all the time.”