Carr's men take foot off pedal

Word that the concluding Allianz Football League match between Dublin and Kerry has been called off because of rain brings the first half of the winter programme to a whimpering close. Both counties are probably thankful for the inhospitable weather; both are winless in the league and this would have been something of a shadow match so numerous are the absentees on both teams.

While Kerry's sluggish league form is inevitable as they go through the post All-Ireland haze of celebrations, delayed club fixtures and sheer fatigue, Dublin's record of no return from two games is a little more surprising.

Tom Carr's teams have traditionally been very competitive in the league, but this year the side have been gently re-acclimatising themselves to league football after their numbing championship exit. While the Dublin boss had been hopeful of picking up two points in Kerry, he is not going to suffer any sleepless nights on the back of the team's current position. Truth is, Dublin, like many other counties at this time of year, are just ticking over.

"You have to take your foot of the pedal some time," Carr reasons. "You simply can't ask lads to kill themselves every time out or they will just burn out. Returning to league football on the back of the championship is always difficult for players and we are missing around nine or 10 players at the moment.

"So we aren't taking the league too seriously in the sense that we aren't training four times a week or studying videos. But, that said, every time we take the field we want to win and I will say one thing for these Dublin players, when we ask them for an extra effort, they are more than willing. They have a tremendous work ethos and willingness, but you can't employ that at full steam for every month of the year."

While Carr has always been an advocate of the league and believes that there is a place for it in the GAA calendar, he has reservations about the current system.

"It doesn't have a league feel," he points out. "You have three games before Christmas, a two-month break, and then you start anew for the concluding four games. There is no sense of continuity; the gap sort of isolates the first three games and highlights the remaining four as championship preparation.

"I believe that to run it off on a weekly basis, as is the format in hurling, would be a lot more beneficial to both the league and the competing teams." However, the routine of meeting up as a team must offer a form of catharsis for teams dealing with championship disappointment. The manner in which Dublin were blitzed by Kildare after hitting near perfection in the first half of the Leinster final was one of the cruellest stories of the past championship. Surely, just kicking football again helps put some welcome distance between themselves and that game?

"There is an element of that. But regarding the championship, we haven't really delved into that yet, in terms of asking ourselves what happened and taking stock of it. Because it simply isn't relevant at this time of year. It's something that we will return to when we are starting to prepare for next year's competition."

It's not as if this Dublin team requires a major overhaul anyway. Carr's commitment to developing his side has been little short of a labour of love. Sometimes, when they hit form, Dublin appear to be on threshold of capturing that indefinable edge that cuts a swathe between All-Ireland contenders and the rest of the bunch. There is the sense that they are just a small step away from being the real thing.

"We feel that is true and it's very frustrating. And we are constantly telling ourselves that it is a matter of just going that extra inch. I don't think our shortcomings have been down to lack of skill or lack of height or size or any of the most obvious elements that can make a difference to a team.

"It is, and I would be forthright in saying this, a matter of developing that mental toughness best characterised by the Clare hurlers. We need guys to step up and be leaders and we are confident that in people like Jonny McGee and Ciaran Whelan that we have the players of that calibre.

"But that takes time - our back line, for instance, is very young and I think that when players go through a painful defeat, as we did, and come back from it, they can benefit from it."

And when he does get round to analysing that Kildare loss with his players, it will not be simply a matter of putting it behind them. It is important that the team remember just how empty, how sick they felt in the days following the loss.

"I think, yes, you do need to retain that somewhere, because it sharpens the difference between winning and losing and reinforces a player's desire not to return there, not to experience a similar type of hurt again."

But the thing about the championship is that only one team experiences no sense of failure or pain. And often, the dividing factor is plain old luck. As Carr sees it, there is little need for second guessing where Dublin is concerned.

He has said the management need to pick up maybe two players before the next championship. Ian Robertson, fitness permitting, will be one of those. There is little reason for them not to look ahead to the next championship with considerable optimism.

In the long run, it is as well that the Dublin's visit to Kerry has been postponed. When they meet again, both sides will be returning to full strength and should also be imbued with an energy that is all but impossible to summon at this time of year.

With five games to look forward to, Tom Carr might get a taste of "real" league life after all - and Dublin's position in the table could change significantly.