Craig Dias rues brevity of whirlwind second coming with Dubs

Kilmacud Crokes players, left to right, Shane Horan, Craig Dias, Craig's daughter Lola, Dara Mullin, and Shane Cunningham celebrate after the Leinster final win over Naas. Picture: Daire Brennan/Sportsfile

Craig Dias admits his brief return to the Dublin team in 2020, when he was "in and out within a week", was a "whirlwind" experience that he could have handled better.

The Kilmacud Crokes midfielder, an unused sub for Dublin’s breakthrough All-Ireland final win in 2011, was restored to the first team in early 2020 by boss Dessie Farrell and lined out against Donegal in the Allianz League having not previously featured in blue since 2013.

But his hopes of enjoying a glorious second coming in blue were dashed when he was taken off at half-time, signalling the end of his comeback.

Now 31 and with a young baby, he hasn’t shut the door entirely on playing for Dublin again and turned in a huge display earlier this month in the AIB Leinster club final at Croke Park, but admits it’s on him with regard to whether Farrell is interested.

Dias, who will carry the hopes of Crokes again on Saturday against Padraig Pearses in the All-Ireland semi-finals, acknowledged that he didn’t do himself any favours by not explaining to Farrell that he wasn’t fully fit for the Donegal game.

Kilmacud Crokes footballer Craig Dias pictured ahead of the AIB All-Ireland Senior Club Football Championship semi-final. Picture: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

“It was a whirlwind really,” said Dias of the sensational recall. “I thought I had been going well since 2018, since Robbie (Brennan, Kilmacud manager) came back in the fold. He kind of had me falling in love with football again, with the way he wanted to play the game.

“I was kind of disappointed that I didn’t get a call up at that stage. I think I missed opportunities because I was away with work. Then last year (2020) we had a late call for a challenge game against Dublin. That was on the Saturday. I played well, I was marking Fenton, had an energy about myself in midfield, chipped in with a couple of scores.

“I was called in for Dublin training then on the Tuesday, trained well again and then there were questions put to me by Dessie. ‘Do you feel that you’re in a position to contribute at the weekend?’ I said, ‘Yes’, even though I potentially had question marks over fitness because it was at the start of the club campaign.

“That was probably only my second game of the season and to run out in Croke Park against Donegal, against seasoned inter-county footballers, Croke Park is a massive pitch, if you’re not going to be on your game you will be exploited and that happened so I was in and out within a week.”

Being downgraded to the development squad was a difficult one for Dias to take.

“At 29 years of age, 30 years of age, I don’t think there’s much development left really,” he shrugged. “So yeah, I kind of knew that that was the shot. It kind of falls on myself in terms of how I communicated with Dessie, I probably should have been a bit more open.”

A window of opportunity may still be open for Dias. Farrell looked at 40 different players in the O’Byrne Cup so is clearly in experimental mode, particularly after last year’s failed seven-in-a-row bid.

“He’s got a panel there, they’ve been together, they’ve been training together,” said Dias. “It’s on him. I’m happy enough with the situation I have with Kilmacud Crokes. We have had success in the past, we’re going to have success in the future as well so it kind of feeds my hunger there, with Kilmacud.”

Dias reckons he was at his prime in 2018 when Jim Gavin was in charge of Dublin but a county recall didn’t materialise.

“Who is to say that I deserved to be there? I’m not saying I deserved to be there,” he said. “Some of my performances in the other campaigns wouldn’t warrant me getting called up. There’s questions I need to put to myself too but there were campaigns where I was performing well and potentially the hardest part was seeing other players getting called up for challenge games and (me) not getting called up.

“But managers throughout history, no matter what sport it is, make decisions on players and it’s all about relationships. I got a second chance later in life so there’s no real heartache and I don’t really look at the ‘what ifs?’ I’ve had a good career with Kilmacud Crokes, I’ve captained a big community for four or five years and that’s a big achievement for me, and I can hold my head up with that.”

There could be more success on the horizon though the absence of Paul Mannion will make Crokes’ task tomorrow all the more difficult. The former Dublin forward underwent minor knee surgery the day before their Leinster final win over Naas.

“He’s recovering,” said Dias. “I think he still has a couple of weeks ahead of him. We’ve played well without Paul before, we can do it again. There’s a lot of leadership throughout that squad so it wasn’t really a massive worry for us, not having Paul available (for the Leinster final). We just kind of got on with it.”