The question the chasing pack must ask: What would Dublin do?
It’s the question that the managers of their closest rivals will be asking themselves in the coming months as they hope to be the team to deny Dublin the five-in-a-row in 2019.
breaks down some of the most pressing fixes for the chasing pack
DONEGAL:
During the league, Ballyshannon’s Fr Tierney Park and Letterkenny’s O’Donnell Park play host to games, as well
as their regular home of MacCumhaill Park in Ballybofey. Their record in Letterkenny is poor, while there isn’t much appetite to play in Ballyshannon, with Martin McElhinney revealing a few years back that: “Donegal don’t even want to go to Ballyshannon, I think it is the worst place in Ireland, to be honest.”
Ballybofey was a fortress for eight years before Tyrone broke it last month. There’s playing to their strengths and playing at your strength, which makes MacCumhaill Park as important to Donegal as Croke Park is to Dublin.
GALWAY:
The loss of Paddy Tally will be regarded as a blow to Galway, but deemed a relief by some of their supporters, who were turned off by their style of football this year. If it formed a base, or at least a consciousness of defensive responsibility, then coach Tally’s season will resonate into the future. What’s the next step? Well, this year, Kerry followed Dublin’s example in recruiting a basketball coach in James Weldon (Jim Gavin brought in Mark Ingle in early 2015). Though things didn’t work out for Kerry, Éamonn Fitzmaurice was full of praise for Weldon. Appointing somebody with a basketball background to assist him, Kevin Walsh would be moving in the right direction, striving for more of a balance between defence and attack. Shane Walsh would be an ideal
candidate to fill the point guard role performed by Ciarán Kilkenny.
KERRY:
Stephen Cluxton should lead Dublin for a seventh season in 2019 and, if ever there was a time for Kerry to bid
farewell to its captaincy tradition, it was after the spate of retirements of serial All-Ireland winners. It didn’t matter in 2014, when the likes of Marc Ó Sé and Aidan O’Mahony were still there, but Kerry have so badly needed a regular leader in recent seasons. The role has been something of a burden on the likes of Dr Crokes’ trio, Johnny Buckley, Shane Murphy, and Fionn Fitzgerald. Were he starting games regularly, Kieran Donaghy would have been made for the role. David Moran or Paul Murphy seem best suited now. The days of passing around the virtual armband, when it can count for something on the field and in the dressing room, should be a thing of the past.
MAYO:
News of Mayo establishing a three-pitch centre of excellence in Castlebar the week before last was lost in the maelstrom created by the Carnacon controversy and Stephen Rochford’s exit. It is a welcome development but Castlebar remains too much of a distance for many of the players based in Dublin. To facilitate this, Mayo have held midweek training sessions for those based in the capital and arranged sessions at halfway venues in the Midlands so that all can attend. That latter arrangement should be encouraged more for the first half of the season. Mayo can’t keep playing catch-up on Dublin if they are not all together from the outset.
MONAGHAN:
One of the greatest tributes to Malachy O’Rourke has been his ability to retain so many of the old guard and is able to glean performances from the likes of Vinny Corey and Dessie Mone. Certainly, experience was a factor in Monaghan finishing ahead of Galway and Kerry in their Super 8 group. He has, however, been a little slow in giving youth its chance.
Instead, he is keener to go with the tried and trusted. Conor McCarthy would be a starter in most other counties and the perceived lack of faith in him might have affected his confidence. Undoubtedly, O’Rourke has placed a lot of belief in Niall Kearns, who was superb in his debut season this year, but there has to be more spontaneity in their approach and youth provides it.
TYRONE:
It was notable the morning after the All-Ireland final replay win over Mayo that Jim Gavin sat down in the team hotel with Gary Keegan, who had been advising him.
Keegan’s expertise drips from the language used by Jim Gavin, who has implemented his structure for best performance in the Dublin camp. Mickey Harte has a lot of good people working around him, from Peter Donnelly to Stephen O’Neill and, as Cathal McCarron mentioned last week, he hasn’t been slow to change his ways to reflect the players coming into the panel, but in terms of leaning on somebody for how he manages, does he have anybody to take real counsel from? His panel also illustrated on Sunday that they could do with some advice
in toughening up mentally.
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