Continuing a proud family tradition for Dublin

Barney Rock is pretty sure that Dean, his son, was in the main stand in Navan the day Dublin beat Westmeath in the 1996 Championship.

The only son among four children, Dean was just six then and perhaps failed to grasp the gravity of the occasion as his father managed Westmeath against the county he’d starred for.

As it panned out, Barney didn’t upset the Dublin supporters too much as the reigning All-Ireland champions streaked to a comfortable 10-point win.

Truth be told, Dean was more interested in the endless training sessions that preceded those big games as it gave him the opportunity to practise his own kicking skills.

He liked to shoot frees in particular and watched them sail over the black spot while his father put the Westmeath players through their paces nearby.

“He would have managed a lot of teams when I was growing up and I just basically would have been doing it for something to do when the training sessions were going on, I’d kick frees,” said Dean.

“Then, every team that I played on when I was younger, I was the free-taker. So it came from there.”

Exactly 20 years on from that game in 1996, Dean was top scorer for Dublin, with eight points, against Westmeath in last year’s Leinster final. All of his scores came from frees.

A similar haul is a possibility tomorrow when Dublin play Westmeath for the third summer running at Croke Park. If only Westmeath had known the trouble they were causing for themselves when they invited Barney Rock down to manage them all those years ago.

“Dean was only young but he would have come along with me to training and games,” recalled Barney. “He used to pal around with Kieran Gavin at the time because Kieran’s father, Davy, was one of my selectors with Westmeath.

“Kieran ended up playing full-back for Westmeath himself, which is amazing when you think back to the two young lads kicking a ball between each other. Kieran and Dean ended up playing together at DCU, they’re about the same age, and they won a Sigerson Cup as teammates in 2012.”

A lot of the same circumstances as now prevailed in 1996 when Rock managed Westmeath against Dublin. The Dubs were All-Ireland holders while Westmeath, like now, were seen as a team on the up having made some progress under former manager Mattie Kerrigan.

“They’d won the All-Ireland minor title in 1995 and the hope was that five or six of those players would break through but it was just a bit early in the process the following year,” said Barney.

“We were on a hiding to nothing against Dublin and the expectations wouldn’t have been massive.

“The hope was that if we performed well and kept ourselves in a good position we might be able to sneak something late on. But I remember we missed a couple of chances that would have helped and I think it was Keith Barr that got the goal for Dublin and they ran out comfortable enough winners.

“There was no back door at the time so that was it.”

Rock only managed Westmeath for one more year, 1997, but what a year that was.

“We played Wexford in the first round, drew with them,” he said. “We beat them in the replay in a high-scoring game in Mullingar. Then we played Offaly, drew with them too. We went back to Cusack Park again but they beat us and went on to win the Leinster title that year.

“It was the first time Westmeath had played four Championship matches in one year and gave you a sense of how good things might be if they could get a run going. That was my final year. I was still playing away at club level and the up and down to Westmeath four times a week was a bit much so I finished up with them.”

These days, when he’s not coaching his daughters at Garristown, he’s following Dean’s progress with Dublin or offering some advice down at the local pitch when his son is practising on his own.

“Barney would be down the odd time to let out a roar when I’m kicking frees,” smiled Dean, an All Star last year, emulating his father.

It’s tough to call which of them is the better free-taker.

Barney’s left foot was as reliable as a Swiss timepiece when he played. A few years after managing Westmeath he played in a charity soccer match in Whitehall and roofed a free-kick off the ground from all of 35 yards out.

Speaking in 2015, Mick Galvin, an All-Ireland winner with Dublin in 1995, described Dean as a “great free-taker” before adding the caveat, “but Barney was particularly special, to be honest”.

Barney finished up with just the one All-Ireland, from 1983, but three All Stars. Dean has it the other way around; three All-Irelands and one All Star. He has time on his side though and after an injury-interrupted few years, is a regular now in a Dublin side seeking to become the first team since Kerry in 1986 to win three All-Irelands in a row.

Westmeath will do their best to throw a spanner in the works tomorrow. “They’ve got two good games under their belt,” said Barney of Westmeath. “The first game against Offaly they’ll be disappointed with but they came out and corrected that last weekend. Anytime you scored 3-17 you’ve got to be happy and it shows there’s a lot of good footballers there.”

Rock suggests that Westmeath will have to score at least 16 points to have any hope of winning. Statistics back up his case as Dublin haven’t scored less than 15 points in a Leinster championship game since 2012.

“But you still have to perform,” noted Barney. “The Carlow game reminded me of Dublin-Donegal in this year’s league when neither team really set themselves up to win the game. So they can definitely improve.”