Dubs favourite Macauley knows he must improve

Michael Darragh Macauley has admitted being axed for the first time in his Dublin career came as a ‘wake up call’ and attributed it partly to training too hard earlier in the year.

The 2013 Footballer of the Year was dropped by manager Jim Gavin for last weekend’s All-Ireland quarter-final win over Fermanagh having started against Westmeath and Kildare.

Midfielder Macauley also failed to start their Championship opener against Longford though being benched for the Fermanagh game was a clear statement from the management he must improve.

Powerful Macauley had evolved into one of Dublin’s most important players and, aside from injury related absences in 2011 and 2012, was an ever present since nailing down a starting spot midway through the 2010 Championship.

The Ballyboden St Enda’s man said he has an important three and a half weeks coming up now to win back his place ahead of a semi-final clash with Donegal or Mayo on August 30. And in an intriguing admission, the two-time All Star conceded his game perhaps suffered as a result of focusing too much on fitness earlier in the year.

“I think initially, at the start of the year, because I missed the whole league campaign and the O’Byrne Cup, I was lacking a bit of fitness,” said Macauley. “And I went after the fitness thing very hard and I got fitter than I’ve ever been. But, in that, I probably sacrificed a bit of ball work. So I need to get my hands on a ball more often and get a bit of game time. I’m blessed now we have a four-week period and I can really hone in on that.” Macauley said being dropped was a little ‘strange’ at first having been a key player for so long.

“Maybe it’s a bit of a wake up call, if it was possibly needed,” he continued. “It’s definitely given me a bit of a kick I didn’t think I needed but maybe I did. So I have a particularly big four weeks ahead of me going into the All-Ireland semi-finals.

“I’m definitely going to do everything possibly to get that jersey back. But we’ll see, it should be interesting.” Denis Bastick’s return to strong form and the rapid development of Raheny’s Brian Fenton have offered Gavin strong options in midfield this summer.

Macauley said he’s able to stand back from his own personal situation and realise that such competition is good for the team overall as Dublin chase a third All-Ireland success in five seasons.

He said that anyone who is happy sitting on the bench and taking the ‘free gear’ shouldn’t be part of their set-up.

“That’s the kind of culture we’ve always driven to breed within the Dublin team - anyone who is happy just getting their gear bag or who is happy telling people they made the 26 or telling people they made the 35 at the start of the year, there’s just no space for them on the Dublin team,” said the Ballyboden club man.

“They can take their free gear and good luck, to be honest. Because it’s no use to us if lads are too comfortable. If Brian Fenton was happy sitting on the bench as number 26, that’s no use to us. We need that standard being driven all the time.

“Thankfully we have a panel of 30 plus players who can do that and who aren’t happy until they get on the team.” Dublin will learn their semi-final opponents tomorrow providing there’s a winner between Donegal and Mayo at Croke Park.

“It will be interesting, not that we need to focus the mind because we know how tough a semi-final it’s going to be against either Mayo or Donegal,” said Macauley. “But obviously we can put a bit more polish on it next week when we have a name in front of us and we know who we’re going to play.”