Now indispensable, Niall Scully feared he'd missed Dublin boat

Scully didn’t make Jim Gavin’s squad for 2016 and hit for America instead, like he’d done in the summer of 2015

Thu, 11 Mar, 2021 - 06:00

Paul Keane

He’s a current All-Star and a four-time All-Ireland medallist who hasn’t yet lost a Championship game, but for a while Niall Scully feared he’d missed the boat with Dublin.

The wing-forward often flies beneath the radar yet is one of the first names on Dessie Farrell’s team-sheet, starting 11 of their 12 League and Championship games last season.

In fact, since his remarkable debut year of 2017, Scully has started 51 of Dublin’s 58 League and Championship games, coming on as a sub in two more. Of the five games he didn’t participate in, two were dead rubbers in the Super 8s, two others were league games.

The Templeogue Synge Street man is the prototype modern wing-forward — tireless, ultra-efficient and, as he proved with 1-6 in last year’s Championship and his key role in both goals against Mayo, increasingly dangerous going forward.

Rewind back to pre-2017 though and, two years after lining out in an All-Ireland U21 final win over Roscommon, he didn’t make Jim Gavin’s squad for 2016 and hit for America instead, like he’d done in the summer of 2015.

“That was just down to not being on the squad more than anything,” said Scully. “My first intention would have been to hopefully be on the squad but for particular reasons, it didn’t work out. So I travelled abroad instead for the summer again. No regrets, they were great summers that I had and it’s probably why I’m in a healthy mental mindset in terms of my career so far.”

But was he concerned that Dublin career mightn’t actually amount to much at senior level back in 2015 and 2016?

“Absolutely, plenty of times that would have crossed my mind,” he said. “Mostly in 2016, and then coming into the 2017 season, playing in the O’Byrne Cup that year, probably mentally I knew, well not knew it was my last opportunity, but knew it was time to give it a good crack and do my best to get on the panel. That was the main focus, just get on the panel, don’t mind getting on starting teams or playing in All-Ireland finals.”

It was a solid plan and it couldn’t have worked out much better. Dublin fielded a third-string team in the 2017 O’Byrne Cup, managed by Paul Clarke, and Scully played all five games, held onto the jersey for the league and ended up making the most competitive appearances of any Dublin player that season. And that’s pretty much how it’s stayed since.

Scully scored a point in that maiden Championship campaign of 2017, 3-1 in the summer of 2018, 1-3 in 2019 and that 1-6 haul last autumn and winter. His energy and endeavour is now matched by his appetite for scores and assists, a deadly combination.

“A good game for me is how effective I was going forward,” said Scully. “Am I creating chances and scoring opportunities for others? Early on in my career I was probably scoring a point or two every three games. Over the last year or two it’s something I’ve been trying to improve and last season it did improve.”

It was Scully that combined with James McCarthy straight off the throw-in in December’s All-Ireland final to eventually play in Dean Rock for the fastest goal ever scored in a decider. He was even more central to the second goal, playing another one-two but this time with Con O’Callaghan.

“It was nothing that was practised in training,” insisted Scully of the penetrating move that led to Rock’s early stunner. “It was literally, in the dressing room, the plan that we came up with. And it came off far from what we planned but the end result we had wished for was the goal. And it came off. The ball bounced in the right way for James and it went from there.”

Winning his first All-Star award on the same weekend that the late Anton O’Toole, an iconic figure at the club, would have turned 70, put the icing on the cake for Scully.

“Absolutely, Anton is a legend within our club. There’s probably not a conversation that goes on in the club where Anton’s name doesn’t come up. I’ve a few more (All-Stars) to get to be getting anywhere near him. Definitely it was a nice thing to get on the same weekend as his birthday.”

As part of the AIG Dub Club Health Initiative launched in 2018, Niall Scully was on hand to launch the new virtual AIG Health & Wellness portal, which offers free membership for all Dublin club players and members to a unique physiotherapy-led fitness and health online resource that includes virtual gym membership. For further information and to enrol in the AIG Dub Club Health Club go to www.aig.ie/dubgym.