Jim Gavin unfazed by Darragh Ó Sé remarks

Jim Gavin has played down Darragh Ó Sé’s remarks about Diarmuid Connolly after his forward turned in a man-of-the-match winning performance yesterday.

Ó Sé questioned the length of Connolly’s fuse in his Irish Times column last week. He wrote: “So how do you get at Connolly? To me, there’s still a bit of a scamp in him. His temperament has got better over the years but I still think there’s something to be said for pulling his tail and seeing if he’ll hiss back at you.”

Connolly was booked along with Kildare’s Pádraig O’Neill in the 45th minute but was hardly indisciplined.

Gavin shrugged about Ó Sé: “I learned a long time ago when Kerry talk about other counties, I take it with a pinch of salt.”

Yesterday was Dublin’s fifth consecutive Leinster victory by double-digits, maintaining Gavin’s unbeaten run in the province. Asked about the lack of competitiveness, he said his team have to reach the standards they set for themselves.

“There are no guarantees. If the mindset wasn’t good today, we couldn’t have come away with the result. So we’ll keep going after that.

“To get a performance there’s a certain process we need to go through. You saw the end product on the park today. Behind that goes a lot of hard work by the players. They’re a very driven bunch. They’re very ambitious and understand that it’s all about the next game. There are no guarantees in this sport and they just have to work hard and put themselves in a position to win games.”

As difficult as it is to believe, Gavin said he wasn’t aware of the repercussions of losing yesterday, a qualifier away to Offaly next Saturday.

“I didn’t even know the game was on in six days’ time. Our focus was on today.”