Darcy: We’re the Man United everyone wants to see beaten
Dublin selector Declan Darcy accepts the bubble the group have created will be “stress-tested” by the intensifying hype surrounding their achievements and perceived advantages.
Darcy, also Jim Gavin’s defensive and defensive kick-out coach and ‘eye in the sky’ on match-day, is confident the players won’t have absorbed much of what’s being said around the city and county these past few weeks.
And he says they won’t heed claims they have an unfair edge because of population, funding, and their familiarity with Croke Park.
“I think they realise the dangers of it. And of course Jim obviously sets the agenda, you know: ‘Let’s not go there’.
“And that whole environment that’s been created, it’s at times like this when it’s stress-tested. So you’re building up an environment over the last few years for these opportunities, so that when they do arise that the players can still function.”
Darcy knows a team being at the top for so long upsets people but thinks criticism of Dublin and their resources has been harsh on the players.
Like, if I was looking at Man United, I’d love to see the fuckers getting beaten, or whoever is winning all the time. I just think that’s human nature.
“I think they see this team, they understand what’s going on and then they try to pick holes in it.
“The easy one would obviously be to go after population, funding, you know: ‘What can we do to stop them?’
“We can’t control that. They’re all human beings. They’ve all come from clubs. It’s probably a little bit unfair on them to have to experience that because people just want to see them beaten. You’d nearly think we’d be better off just losing a game to stop all that. Then we can start over again.”
Darcy says that in jest but he has never sensed it has upset the players.
“I’m not bullshitting you, that’s the great thing about them — the first thing they want to do is: ‘How can we get better for the next day?’
“They weren’t going around clapping each other on the back after what happened (against Mayo). All that was in their head was: ‘What can we do better? How can I get better? Why did that happen?’ They’re always in that space.
“I’ve played with Dublin myself and the sideshow can get (out of control)...
“I suppose it’s good that we were in that group with different coaches and different environments that was a bit rollercoastery, too much maybe. So I think that’s been a good thing for us, to create an environment that we don’t have that.
“You know yourself when Dublin go to play, you could have an awful lot of people at the game that maybe come to games that wouldn’t even know all the players’ names.
Especially when the team starts to function well, everyone wants to be a part of it. And there’s dangers to that. People get a misread on where they are in their football careers. And then that’s when the sucker punch comes, when you’re not expecting it, in a sporting context.
“Listening to people outside of the environment can delude you: ‘You’re going to win the next game by 10 points’. Well, if I let that into my head, as sure as fuck we’re going to get beaten.”
Not that Darcy is belittling Kerry’s win over Dublin in the league earlier this year but he does mention that “we were only back from our holidays.”
With his defensive hat on, the idea of Tommy Walsh starting on Sunday intrigues him.
“It brings a different dynamic, for sure. It’ll be interesting to see that, if it functions. (David) Clifford is a big man as well, he’s probably as big as Tommy, but probably not as brash as him.
“It’ll certainly be a different type of footballer we’re going to play the next day, that’s the football we want to play, we want to play traditional football.
"We’ve had our share of 15 behind the ball. Even sometimes our lads get caught doing it, which is kind of bizarre in its context. But we like to play the game the way it should be played.”
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