Dean Rock continues a family free-taking tradition

From surplus to requirements to ever-present, Dean Rock’s graph has shown a steady rise these last five years.

Unlike Pat Gilroy, Jim Gavin saw the promise in his former U21 player. There have been a couple of obstacles along the way such as a knee injury and it wasn’t really until last year that he had begun established himself in the team. Even then, he was benched at half-time in that All-Ireland final victory over Kerry. It turned out to be the motivation for his All-Star winning 2016 season.

“Obviously the team won; that’s the main thing. But everyone looks at themselves, individually, at the end of the season — where they can improve and stuff like that. So I took it on the chin and obviously I was delighted that we won the All-Ireland because they’re not easily won. From a personal perspective, I asked what I needed to work on, and I went about it, trained hard in the off-season at the end of 2015 and kicked on from there.”