Hickey: Dubs can stay top for 10 years

Two years ago, as an All-Ireland-winning selector, Dr David Hickey claimed Dublin had surpassed the county’s great 1970s team on which he featured.

Two years on, as their team medic, he believes he has been vindicated and sees them being the side everyone wants to topple over the next decade.

That’s not to say Hickey doesn’t believe they can’t improve. “I thought in 2011 that they were better than us. That has really only enforced it.

“This is a team in evolution. This is not the finished product by any means. We still can’t put one-on-ones away with the keeper. We don’t slow down and that’s the thing we need to work on next year.

“Michael Darragh (Macauley) and Eoghan (O’Gara) had one-on-ones with the keeper that could have ended the game and they still didn’t take them.

“Against Cork, we had 10 good goal chances and didn’t convert any of them (Jack McCaffrey did score a goal for Dublin). They are going to be around for a long time competing, not necessarily winning. They’re going to be the team to beat.”

Hickey was the team doctor to the 1983 All-Ireland winning team and joked he has a 100% record in the role.

He knows it won’t be skill that will keep Dublin at the top but their raw ambition to remain there.

“When the hunger goes out of the thing, I mean, I can’t understand people wanting to win 10 All-Irelands.

The Kilkenny guys keep coming back every year because they obviously have a huge level of skill and expertise but competitive Gaelic football, the skill level is pretty standard. It’s the drive.

“No one has won back to back All-Irelands because of that. It is the drive and the anger and the hunger to do it. I’m not saying we are going to win for 10 years but I think Dublin are in a position now to compete in the last four for the next 10 years.”

The comparisons between the team of the 1970s and this one couldn’t be more stark, insists Hickey.

“We had the same six forwards for six All-Irelands in a row. (Now) we don’t have the same six forwards for one game in a row. And you have to use 20 people today. We are just lucky we actually have 10 guys we could bring onto that team and wouldn’t weaken it.”

There were different economic circumstances too.

He laughed: “Well, there was nothing else to do in our day. Nothing. There was no drink, no women and no money so football was the only game in town.

“I’ll tell you, we were the only actual highlight. Life was very tough in the 70s. Ireland is going through a tough patch at the moment and I think Dublin winning, and I’m sure Mayo would feel the same, but for the inner city Dublin kids to have this crowd of guys doing their stuff is fantastic.”

Hickey looks back on last month’s quarter-final win over Cork as the one which convinced him of Dublin’s ability to claim a second All-Ireland crown in three years.

“That Cork team are always a big scalp to get and we were very happy with our performance that day.

“Kerry obviously was special in many ways and Sunday was a war of attrition and we survived by the skin of their teeth,

“It’s great credit to the courage, commitment, guts and determination and all the values that people don’t often associate with Dublin teams.”

Although Dublin suffered two concussions, Hickey was more captivated than concerned about the intensity of Sunday’s final.

“There wasn’t a dirty blow in it, I’d say. Rory O’Carroll went for a ball and came off second best in the challenge and spent the last 15 minutes of the games spaced!

“Every ball was contested as if people’s lives depended on it. Diarmuid Connolly got away a few times but a hand always got in and knocked the ball away and that happened all over the field against both sides, which I suppose for people who wanted a spectacle of flowing football wasn’t great.

But anyone who understands competitive, intense sport, that was a classic.”