Shots fired at Dessie Farrell were 'disgraceful', insists James McCarthy 

Most reasonable minds would have conceded that Dessie Farrell had assumed a thankless task in taking over from Jim Gavin, and that there always going to be tough choices and staging posts ahead but, hey, every crusade needs a religion.

TRIUMPH: Dublin manager Dessie Farrell celebrates as James McCarthy lifts the Sam Maguire Cup. Pic: Daire Brennan/Sportsfile

It can’t be easy to cultivate a chip on the shoulder with a pocketful full of silver. Dublin used 20 players in yesterday’s All-Ireland final and only two of them didn’t have an All-Ireland medal to their name. The other 18 boasted a collection of 104 Celtic Crosses.

This wasn’t a bunch with anything to prove. Shouldn’t have been anyway. The only team in the game’s history to claim a six-in-a-row, they fed off two years of disappointment and doubts that had filtered into camp from outside the camp.