Dublin must be more clinical, warns Gavin

There can’t be much worrying Jim Gavin right now.

Reigning league, provincial and All-Ireland champions, their championship opener done and dusted and a host of players in the game’s deepest squad — in terms of quality and quantity — climbing over one another for a game.

Or even a handful of minutes.

Add in the less-than-exemplary showings by the majority of erstwhile challengers so far this summer and the landscape would appear to be taking on a distinctly blue hue long before the serious business of August gets under way. But, of course, no one is immune from worry. Billionaires get depressed, rock stars can feel inadequate and sports people are inundated by self-doubt. Gavin, too, has admitted to at least one area of concern.

“Conversion of our chances,” he said ahead of Sunday’s Leinster semi-final against Wexford. “We created a lot in that game [against Laois three weeks ago] and didn’t take them all. It’s an issue of consistency in front of goal and taking our shots. The pleasing thing is we created a lot, against a very robust Laois team.”

Laois were a worthy opponent on the day, but it took two superb saves from goalkeeper Graham Brody and two licks of paint to deny Dublin first-half goals, despite the fact that the champions struggled for momentum in that period.

The worry for other sides was that Dublin could create so much in spite of their faults. The worry for Dublin is that a habit of creating lots of chances and taking only a handful isn’t a new concern.

Add 15 point attempts that fell wide or short of the target to their first-half peppering of the Laois goal and their profligacy is obvious. Yet, even here, any solace to be found outside the Pale is compromised. Much has been made of Dublin’s bench and their performance against Laois was a frightening example of the capabilities it contains. Nine points they mined from their reserves. More impressive is the fact that only two of their wides were the fault of that second wave, Cormac Costello dropping one short and Kevin McManamon skewing one wide.

An 82% conversion rate from the bench, then. Costello kicked three from play, Dean Rock three from frees. In most counties, such contributions would make for a watertight case for promotion. Not so in Dublin. Starters, subs, squaddies: Gavin isn’t a man for such labels.

“We don’t look at it that way. We expect players to score if they come off the bench, and we expect players to score if they start the game. Whether they start or finish... it’s irrelevant.

“We don’t place emphasis on numbers. We place emphasis on the game and the tactical end that we want to play and that requires more than 15 men.”

Wexford will do well to come close to matching Laois’s competitiveness. In fact, the main learnings of the day are expected in the other half of the double bill, as Kildare and Meath meet.

Meath put 7-13 on hapless Carlow last time. Kildare had 15 points to spare on Louth. The opposition may have been enfeebled, but such scorelines do at least give hope Dublin may be pushed to the limit in Leinster.

“Leinster has always been competitive and there is a big emphasis placed within Dublin GAA on provincial titles and the next challenge we have is the Wexford game,” Gavin added.