Dublin still searching for the right way forward

“No”. Jim Gavin is usually more generous with his words but when he was asked last month if Dublin would be tempted to join others and adopt a blanket defence he felt he didn’t need to elaborate.

His answer might have been curt but then all through this spring the Dublin manager has attempted to disassociate his side from the fashionable rearguard tactics.

After the opening league game in Páirc Uí Rinn, he suggested he had never seen a more defensive Cork side. Having beaten Donegal in an arm wrestle, he said: “That’s the way (Donegal) play. There is no right way or wrong to play Gaelic games. They’ve been so successful with that model.”

Following the defeat in Kerry, he praised the conduct of his players and later remarked on the “death-like” Derry game:

“Whatever way a team plays against us, whether it’s man-to-man or that blanket defence, it’s a case of just trying to work our way through it.”

Easing past Mayo in Castlebar, he said the preparation of other teams was of no interest to him. In the aftermath of thrashing Monaghan, he insisted his players only followed their markers into the Dublin half while reiterating his dedication to a certain style espoused by the county’s teams down through the years. “We have a philosophy in Dublin...” Journalists have heard it so often now it sounds like Martin Luther King’s famous oration.

But something has changed in Gavin’s realm. As much as Paul Flynn described them as the best team in Ireland last year, a defeat as cataclysmic as last August’s to Donegal is never taken lightly.

Where Dublin once were cavalier in a full-court press they now mirror what’s put in front of them knowing, like Pat Gilroy in 2011, their superior individual talent can prevail.

This year, Dublin conceded just 2-78 in seven games, an average of 12 points a game. The last time they got anywhere close to that was in 2013 when they leaked 5-73 in the same number of round matches. Like this year, they also played four games away from home.

“I think there has been a slight change, not real volcanic eruptions or any of that sort of lark,” says former Dublin full-back Paddy Christie.

“I don’t think they’ve gone from all attack to all defence. It just needs transition where there aren’t as many fellas going forward as there were last year.

“I still think they’re trying to play the right way. Morally, people might call it the right way to win the game. They certainly appear to be that bit cuter.

“I’m not sure whether they have a quantity of players they want held in defensive positions but they aren’t pouring forward en masse as they were against Donegal last year.

“They’re being that bit more cautious. It looks like if one fella is going forward, another fella replaces him straight away to keep their shape. That in itself is a step forward.”

Having some of the best individual backs in the country helps to sweeten the pot. Jonny Cooper, Philly McMahon and Cian O’Sullivan are three players who can comfortably slot into either corner positions or anywhere across the half-back line. However, there is one spot where options are slim.

“There are eight or nine lads there that could play all but one of the defensive positions. Full-back is a problem because besides Rory O’Carroll there aren’t that many natural full-backs there,” says Christie.

Derry manager Brian McIver last month insisted it took two to tango, claiming Dublin played a large part in that unseemly spectacle. Christie can see Dublin losing their attractive qualities more and more this season if it means winning.

Knowing when to press up and when to hold off is not something the Ballymun man believes can be perfected in training.

“It’s impossible to work on these things in training because the lads who you’re playing against are in on what’s going on. It takes time to get it right and I’m not sure you can go out into a game and say ‘we’re going to push up on them’ or ‘we’re not’. Things change in games and you just have to be able to adapt.

“Nobody is obliged to play a certain way. Jim Gavin played a very attacking style last year and they got a lot of stick after Donegal. I think he’s going to tinker for a while. The entertainment thing will be secondary. They’ve got to win that All-Ireland, as far as they are concerned.

“They might just find as the season wears on that certain things work better for them. I’m not sure if the modern game lends itself well to any team that is conditioned to play a certain style. When Tyrone were at the height of their powers they could do things for specific games like putting Joe McMahon in on Kieran Donaghy. Tyrone had interchangeable players, fellas who could play anywhere. Sometimes they got stick for being too defensive and other times they played some fantastic, attacking football. That’s the way I think Dublin have to look at things. That’s the way forward for me, anyway.”

Looking as well as staying back, it seems.