Diarmuid Connolly insists Dessie Farrell stay is vital to Dublin 

ANOTHER YEAR? Dublin manager Dessie Farrell during the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship quarter-final match between Dublin and Galway at Croke Park in Dublin. Pic: Shauna Clinton, Sportsfile

Diarmuid Connolly reckons it's 'very important' that Dessie Farrell remains in charge of Dublin for a sixth consecutive season.

The Dubs suffered their earliest exit from a Championship campaign in 15 years when they were beaten by Galway at the All-Ireland quarter-final stage last month.

Six-time All-Ireland winner Connolly said he has heard plenty of rumours about St Vincent's clubmate Ger Brennan, who took Louth to an All-Ireland quarter-final, potentially replacing Farrell for 2025.

But he reckons that while Brennan would probably love to do it 'at some stage of his career' there is no obvious 'natural progressor' to replace Farrell at the moment.

Farrell guided Dublin to All-Ireland senior wins in 2020 and 2023 and his current agreement with the county board takes him up to the end of next season.

"All the talk I suppose is whether Dessie Farrell will stay on and stay in charge, I don't think a decision has been made yet," said BoyleSports ambassador Connolly. 

"There have been a lot of rumours of Ger Brennan or other ex-players kind of stepping into the helm. I don't think any of those decisions have been made.

"For that squad and group of players, I think it's very important that he stays on for one more year and doesn't leave it where it is. Just because there's no natural progressor to jump into the Dublin management at the moment, so I think that (Farrell staying) would be a huge thing for this squad.

"He's already signed up for another year anyway. If he stays, I think that would be the right thing for Dublin. But there are guys in the background and I was speaking to Ger Brennan only yesterday as it happens, I'm sure he would love to jump in and be a Dublin manager at some stage of his career."

Aside from his two All-Ireland senior wins as Dublin manager, Farrell also presided over two semi-final defeats, in 2021 and 2022 and this year's quarter-final loss. Two of those losses were by a single point, in 2022 and 2024, while Mayo needed extra-time in 2021 to see off the then-holders.

Connolly said the 'post mortem' around the capital after the loss to Galway is that Dublin should have withheld Paul Mannion and Jack McCaffrey as impact subs instead of starting them.

"But look, what I seen from Dublin this year is resilience," he said. "Anybody else would have laid down against Galway when they went two, three points down in the last 10 minutes. 

"Dublin still got it back to a point and they still got the last shot off from Con O'Callaghan, it was just a bad execution on the shot. And that would have brought it to a draw. 

"I don't think Galway would have come back, I think Dublin would have beaten them in extra-time."

Meanwhile, Connolly sided with Armagh for Sunday's All-Ireland final.

"I think Armagh are waiting in the long grass, they are the fittest team in the Championship for me," he said. 

"They have a little more off the bench so if they can keep it tight as the game comes down the stretch then we could see something similar to what happened in the Kerry game."

*Diarmuid Connolly teamed up with BoyleSports to preview this weekend's All-Ireland SFC final. Get paid out early with BoyleSports if your team goes 7 points ahead, even if they draw or lose!