Champions must rise to the challenge all over again

Very few teams manage to put All-Ireland titles back-to-back in the modern era, but that is the scale of the task now for Pat Gilroy and his Dublin side, writes KEITH DUGGAN

THE BEST that can be said for Dublin in the league was that they didn’t show their hand.

Tomorrow, they begin their All-Ireland defence against Louth leaving public opinion divided as to whether last September was simply a wonderful year or the beginning of a period of domination.

Their spring form offered few clues as to the direction that this Dublin might take. Pat Gilroy’s achievement of deconstructing and reshaping a team inside three years was formidable. But not only that, he taught a very young team how to play with an iron-clad mindset.

Now, they must manage the psychological shift that every All-Ireland team has to make: instead of the team that desperately wants to attain something, they are the team that wants to retain their trophy. The year 1995 is of no relevance to the current generation of Dublin players except as an illustration of the fact that the Sam Maguire can slip through your hands like sand in the year after.

Jason Sherlock was the teenage sensation of that year and must have reckoned on winning more All-Ireland medals after his debut. But, as he said on Newstalk radio last week, it didn’t work out like that, even if he is hopeful things can be different for this generation of Dublin footballers.

“You would hope it wouldn’t because if you look at the average age of that team with the team of 1995, there is no comparison. It is a very young team and you would have to think their best years are ahead of them. There are a lot of guys on that current panel that have never been beaten by Kerry . . . which isn’t something you could have said of Dublin teams in the past few years.

“You would have to be dubious about the league. It wasn’t as good as we had hoped. But it might turn out to be a positive because straight away people are dismissing Dublin’s chances of doing a back-to-back.

“The stats show that not many teams can do it but I would see it as a major challenge. It is a bit like what Brian O’Driscoll said after Leinster won the Heineken Cup, that they wanted to leave a legacy. And there is a great opportunity for that Dublin team to do something.”

But establishing a team that can dominate is tough. Kerry’s back-to-back wins in 2006 and 2007 are an exception to a well- established pattern.

Tyrone’s three All-Ireland titles were achieved with the stepping-stone of two year gaps. Cork looked set to dominate after winning in 2010 but were a pale imitation a summer later.

Perhaps the most interesting case was Armagh.

After they won in 2002, they made a monumental mistake in the first round of the Ulster championship, but still had the poise to make it to the All-Ireland final. Paul Grimley was a selector for Joe Kernan that year and acknowledges that the wonderful madness that follows an All-Ireland win makes the following year more demanding.

“From our point of view we were fortunate to have a group of players who were extremely driven. I think the three years before 2002 gave them a great hunger to win as much as they could in the time they had remaining.

“2002 was a first win for us, unlike Dublin who have seen this before. So it was a wee bit trickier to handle because we had no previous experience. Joe obviously had some idea with Crossmaglen having won three All-Irelands but the rest of us didn’t really have any idea of the euphoria or the media attention.

“But once we got that initial euphoria quietening down, we were very focused on retaining it. We didn’t want to be remembered as a one-off team. And we got back to the final but not without blips. We were caught against Monaghan surprisingly and knuckled down.”

But for a near miraculous block by Conor Gormley on Steven McDonnell’s close-range shot at the end of the game, Armagh probably would have won it all again. It was that close. It hardly seems an overstatement to suggest that the block changed the course of the following year.

What would have become of Tyrone had they lost that match?

And how many All-Irelands might Armagh have finished with? Grimley certainly sees it as one of those moments that seem more significant with time.

“There are some fantastic moments in Gaelic football and I would say that is one. That block, its importance was unbelievable to Tyrone. He won them the All-Ireland with that block. It reminded me of the block by Mick Lyons on Jimmy Kerrigan years and years ago when Jimmy was going through for a goal . . .

“McGeeney made a tremendous block on the Gooch in the 2002 final. But I think that (Gormley’s) block was virtually on the goal line and will always stay in people’s minds.”

And the cold statistic is that despite remaining driven and deeply talented for the remainder of the decade, Armagh were unable to win another All-Ireland. Now Dublin are at the stage where Armagh were a decade ago.

Grimley believes that coping with success will place a bigger demand for Dublin.

“I would feel that whatever pressures other teams feel when they win an All-Ireland that you can treble that with Dublin. Simply because of the media attention and that is one thing that the rest of us don’t have to deal with to that extent.

“You pick up any national newspaper and there is almost always something about Dublin. They are always being scrutinised and analysed. So there is that pressure. And the players here have never sampled an All-Ireland win and I am sure the euphoria in the city was also unique in scale.

“So from that aspect it will be difficult. But as a team I think they are quite capable of going out and performing again. They are obviously a superb side. But one big advantage they have is this: playing Dublin in Croke Park is a totally different proposition to playing them anywhere else.

“We found out that to a huge cost to ourselves in the National League there. If we play Dublin in Armagh, we can reasonably expect a tight game. But in Croke Park, they are so accustomed to it and I think their game plan is tailored from Croke Park because they know that is where it all counts that they have that wee advantage over other teams.”

And Dublin definitely made the old ground tremble during their epochal recovery against Kerry last September. Their win was mesmerising because it seemed to come from nowhere, like a sprint from a laggard trailing the pack in a 5,000 metre race.

Kerry were stunned by the momentum spearheaded by Kevin McManamon and couldn’t respond. The view that Dublin got lucky is not fully justified: they had the moral courage to go for it after the substitute came bundling in for his vital goal.

Equally, Dublin looked to be on the brink in the All-Ireland semi-final against Donegal. There are more ifs and buts there. If Colm McFadden had converted his goal chance early in the second half, would Dublin have folded?

It can be argued both ways but they stuck around and won a tough, gruelling game and the experience stood to them.

The hard lessons of both those games have been banked and now Dublin have acquired the self-assurance that comes with knowing you can win it all.

“They become less panicky on big days and more composed,” says Grimley of the difference winning an All-Ireland makes to a team.

“There is no real desperation there. The confidence becomes a lot better. Dublin, like ourselves, in years gone by put in fantastic runs in the championship but then fell short. So it will seem even sweeter to come from behind.

“Anyone who knows anything about football would have put the house on Kerry with 15 minutes to go and obviously Kevin McMenamin came in and changed the game. But I think they will be more settled and composed.”

When Sherlock and others like him think back to the years after 1995, they will easily recall the small things that made the difference.

“We went seven years without winning a provincial title and it was tough times,” he said of the years when sky-blue teams seemed like an exhibition of frustration. “But I would like to think that some of the foundations were put in place for the guys who finished the job in September.”

And the work that has gone into Dublin at underage level means that the capital might well be in for a bountiful period of success. But first the elusive task of keeping what you have.

“Pat is a formidable manager and he is well accustomed to dealing with pressure in the business world too,” Grimley points out. “I would say he will run it extremely well.”