Dublin's tendency to implode a recurring theme

On Gaelic Games:On Sunday, for the third year running, Dublin's composure and confidence deserted them when the big questions were asked, writes SEÁN MORAN

WHEN IT’S gone, everything’s gone: that high-wire ability to survive in the most fraught of circumstances when one mistake can mean disaster. Entertain any doubts about your ability to walk that line and you’ll fall. As an image, it’s Phillipe Petit in August 1974 on that length of cable suspended between the twin towers of the World Trade Centre and carefully rigged to counteract wind and the swaying of the buildings.

It’s hard to think of a more vivid example of the importance of confidence and self-belief.

But such challenges don’t always come at 400 metres.

On Sunday, for the third year running, Dublin sustained a stinging and traumatic championship defeat, before a large crowd. These matches – against Tyrone, Kerry and most recently Meath – have one major theme in common, the disintegration of Dublin’s composure and confidence to meet a challenge.

Reviewing the matches most people would say of Dublin – they’re not 12 points, 17 points, 11 points worse than Tyrone, Kerry and Meath and teams beaten by Dublin went on later in the season to acquit themselves far better against the first two named.

So, why under pressure does a team so completely lose belief in its ability to compete?

Dublin have been trapped in this drift since losing to Kerry in the 2007 All-Ireland semi-final, the high-water mark of Paul Caffrey’s time in charge.

Caffrey’s successor Pat Gilroy cannot be faulted for the ambition of his plans this season. In order to reconstruct a team that had come up short too often at the top level, he trialled a legion of players during the NFL and implemented a system based on deep-cover defence that would cautiously provide the team with a base for competing with the best teams.

That’s how it turned out in matches against the top sides in the country, but, as a corrective to reading too much into spring form, it should be noted that the top three from this year’s Division One – Mayo, Cork and Dublin – are now all departed from their provincial championship and the deposed Connacht champions even from the qualifiers.

The Dublin manager has been criticised for the alacrity with which he dropped the strategy after one alarming malfunction against Wexford, but he had also been criticised for the monochrome conservatism of the approach and how it undermined the Dubs’ natural expansiveness.

The criticism hasn’t abated since Sunday.

Lose by 11 points to a county that hasn’t beaten you in nine years and no tactical explanation is going to assuage the downbeat general opinion.

Yet, Gilroy was unlucky in some respects.

When planning the season he would probably have had a different team in mind. Ironically, given the rivalry between the manager’s own club St Vincent’s and Kilmacud Crokes, who between them delivered back-to-back All-Irelands in 2008-09, it was injuries to Kilmacud players, which helped undermine Dublin.

At the heart of the defensive system was centre back Cian O’Sullivan whose championship lasted only six minutes before a hamstring pull removed him from the first round against Wexford. His mobility and athleticism had helped to knit together the back six and integrate it with the auxiliary defenders dropping back.

Paul Griffin, the captain, was ruled out for the year with a cruciate injury and his loss has been considerable. Although it had been hoped to use him in his best position as a half back where his support running and use of the ball would have been a major asset, he also had extensive experience of playing elsewhere and his versatility would have given options.

Rory O’Carroll had had a good year at full back, up until last Sunday. A probationary success in the league and player of the championship for the All-Ireland-winning under-21s, his inexperience at senior level was exposed in Sunday’s frantic exchanges, as he charged around at times overcommitting himself.

But having cut his teeth in a system where there was plenty of cover dropping back, he was confronting one of the best attacks in the championship in more testing one-to-one combat.

Neither has it been much remarked on, but injury has ruled his brother and fellow former hurler Ross out of football more or less since he was deemed not quite fit enough for the opening NFL match against Kerry.

Whether Gilroy would have shared the view that Ross is a more natural full back is questionable given Rory’s displays, but it’s highly likely that the pair of them would have been on the inside line of the defence.

Least considered of the team misfortunes was Mark Davoren’s succumbing to a second cruciate injury within minutes of his comeback match for the club after missing nearly all of last season. But the bit in which he was seen against Meath last year suggested he had the wherewithal to step up.

There was further bad luck on Sunday with a couple of the Meath goals featuring refereeing errors in the build-up. Manager Eamon O’Brien made the point himself when reviewing the turnaround from Paul Flynn’s shot that came off the post to Stephen Bray’s goal off the next attack.

None of the speculative impact of these hard knocks, however, can come as much consolation to Gilroy and his players. The team was outclassed by Meath’s hunger to win the match, their much improved defence and genuinely impressive goal finishing.

But the image remains of Dublin freezing again in the headlights, dazzled and disorientated by a team with its tails up rather than hanging on grimly for the time to plot an escape strategy, as the team had managed to do in the league and against Wexford.

The qualifiers await and with them the less than convincing prospect of a campaign of rehabilitation. Teams that have won the All-Ireland at the end of that route have been exclusively teams that had already won one by going through the championship unbeaten.

Teams that do well on the outside track also tend not to have lost by double digits. Wexford are a recent exception. Having recovered from a traumatic first Leinster final in 52 years, they went on to beat Down and Ulster champions Armagh before running eventual champions Tyrone to a respectable six points.

Maybe Dublin can become this season’s plucky, surprise All-Ireland semi-finalists, unburdened by any expectation when playing football’s top teams – the tightrope set sufficiently low that there’s no great distance to fall. Where having your head in the clouds occupies a rather less daring context.