Dublin’s class of 2014 – the greatest underage team of all time?
Dublin players gather for a 'selfie' as they celebrate with the cup. Cadbury GAA Football All-Ireland U21 Championship Final, Dublin v Roscommon, O'Connor Park, Tullamore, Co. Offaly. Picture credit: Ray McManus / SPORTSFILE
Ten years ago, Dessie Farrell led Dublin to their fourth-ever U21 All-Ireland football title.
In the 60-year history of the U21/U20 competition, no winning team has spawned as many senior All-Ireland medals (66). Kerry in 1976 are next with 53 that included three of their five 'great eights' in Páidí Ó Sé, Denis “Ogie” Moran and Pat Spillane.
That Mick O’Dwyer team produced eight All-Ireland senior winners; Farrell’s manifested 10 and that excludes substitute Emmet Ó Conghaile, a recipient of four Celtic Crosses. It also neglects eight-time medallist Ciarán Kilkenny who would have been part of the team but for a cruciate injury.
Smaller squad sizes in the 1970s and the significant amount of game-time some of those Kerry players had compared to Dublin fringe players over this past decade has to be considered. However, in the 2019 All-Ireland final replay win over Kerry, six of them started and one came off the bench.
In Sunday’s Division 1 final, as many as six could make the team. But what of the other nine?
A member of the 2015 All-Ireland winning squad having been drafted in the year before, Molloy came through the ranks with his Coláiste Eanna schoolmate Niall Scully. One of eight goalkeepers that deputised for Stephen Cluxton.
McGowan was trialled during the 2016 and ‘17 O’Byrne Cup campaigns but didn’t make the breakthrough. Nevertheless, he has since won an All-Ireland title with Crokes along with four Dublin SFCs and three Leinsters.
Byrne is not part of Farrell’s senior set-up this season after opting to go travelling for the season. He has amassed eight All-Ireland medals and played last season with no cruciate ligament in his left knee.
After picking up two winning medals in a non-playing capacity, things were looking up for McDaid in 2020 when he started the final win over Mayo and was nominated for an All-Star. However, a shoulder problem then held him back and he is now working in Dubai.
The man with the Meath lineage left Ireland for the United Arab Emirates in the summer of 2021. The seven-time All-Ireland winner now teaches at the Dubai British School, his last appearance for Dublin coming against Donegal in a Division 1 semi-final.
Already destined to go down as one of the most underrated defenders (he picked up his first and only All-Star in 2021), Small has been present in Dublin’s half-back line for their last six All-Ireland successes.
McCaffrey took two sabbaticals from the Dublin senior panel but across those three blocks as a senior footballer he has collected six Celtic Crosses, been crowned footballer of the year and was shortlisted on another occasion.
This was O’Higgins’ second U21 All-Ireland success having been on the panel two years earlier when Jim Gavin was at the helm. O’Higgins was in the 2015 O’Byrne Cup squad. He is credited with convincing Farrell to stick with his club-mate Brian Fenton.
The 31-year-old is rightly recognised as the best midfielder in the game and this generation if not ever. A two-time player of the year and a nominee last season, he is playing the best football of his career.
The dynamic wing-forward had to deal with being dropped from the panel a couple of times before he became a mainstay in the Dublin senior team from 2017 to ’21 and in this year’s National League has demonstrated he is back to his best.
Boland was joint captain of Castleknock when they reached the 2016 senior county final, the first in the club’s history. As well as playing, he managed the club in 2022.
Mullally was eligible for the U21s again the following season and was part of the O’Byrne Cup winning group in 2017 as well as the extended All-Ireland winning squad a year later.
Just when it appeared Mannion had played his last game of football for Dublin in 2020, he returned with McCaffrey last year to claim a seventh medal (McCaffrey’s sixth). Mannion, man of the match in last year’s All-Ireland final, came on against Tyrone last weekend.
Started the Division 1 defeat to Monaghan and win over Derry and hopes to be fit for inclusion in Sunday’s panel. Eight-time All-Ireland SFC medallist Costello has been more of a regular starter for Dublin these past couple of seasons.
The dual star showed his class in helping his club win last year’s senior hurling final but he hasn’t played for Dublin’s footballers since 2021. McHugh won the last of his five Celtic Crosses in December 2020.
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