Dessie Farrell: 'It’s pretty raw, emotional for us in the dressing room'

CONSIDERING FUTURE? Dublin goalkeeper Stephen Cluxton leaves the pitch following his side's defeat. Pic: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Dessie Farrell admits there are players who have likely graced the Dublin dressing room for the last time following this All-Ireland SFC quarter-final loss to Galway.

The county’s first last-eight defeat in 15 years, it could be the end of illustrious inter-county careers such as Stephen Cluxton, Mick Fitzsimons and captain James McCarthy.

“I’m sure there’s some of them in there who will be considering their future,” said Farrell. “It might be the last time that we see them play for Dublin.

“They’ve been brilliant warriors. They died with their boots on today. But there is another generation of players in there who have the hunger and desire to want to continue and go on to wear the Dublin jersey with pride and honour and I’m sure they will do that.” 

Farrell conceded Dublin ran out of juice in the second half. “It’s pretty raw, emotional for us in the dressing room. We haven’t had the chance to review it yet but stating the obvious, that second half performance wasn’t good enough.

“Great credit to Galway. We knew they’d come at us hard in that second half and throw the kitchen sink at it and we just found it hard to come up with the answers they posed. Ultimately, we came up short.” 

He continued: “We just seemed to run out of energy in the second half. The pep just wasn’t in the step. Execution was of and we were turning over ball but then when we turned them over, we struggled to get up the field with pace which is something we’re normally very good at doing.

“Our ability to get forward quickly and get back quickly definitely diminished in that second half. Ultimately you can’t afford a performance like that in any game, let alone for the entirety of the second half.” 

Starting veterans McCarthy, Jack McCaffrey and Paul Mannion and not having their experience to draw from off the bench may have backfired but Farrell defended the decision.

“You can become very predictable too, doing that (keeping them in reserve) and some of those lads were coming back from injury and we felt had more in the tank and more to offer. It worked well in the first half but we started to struggle in the second and just couldn’t find a way.” 

Farrell had a nagging doubt the long-term injuries of defenders Lee Gannon and Cian Murphy would come back to bite Dublin.

“They’ve had a bit of experience the last couple of seasons. Our fear all along was that that might come back to haunt us. To lose two players like, not alone are they good defenders, they’re very good attacking players as well.

“We lost Davy Byrne (travelling) earlier as well so definitely a little bit of a struggle. Hugely disappointed for the lads to be missing out at this stage of the competition. They’re the breaks.

“That’s what you build a squad for. And as much depth as you can. But everyone goes out and does their best and everyone understands that sometimes you have a full deck to pick from and others you don’t. We got caught on the last couple of weeks like that.

“Despite throwing everything at it, the lads just weren’t going to get themselves ready. And that’s the way it was.”