SELDOM has a man shunted out of his favourite - and best - position been so relieved. Mick Deegan, one part of the quickest half back combinations in the business in recent years, is one of Mickey Whelan's adjustments to the Dublin team that won last year's All Ireland.

Given that one of the players recalled, Eamonn Heery, had held down Deegan's favoured position in the past - forcing him back to the corner in 1991 and 92 (Deegan was injured for much of the 93 championship) - he probably expected a battle for the position.

In prospect, Deegan might have expected the price of losing to be higher than merely having to switch back a line for the champions first defence three weeks ago, against Westmeath.

"Well, I'd rather be wing back at this stage," he says, "but there's so much competition, I'm delighted to be on the team. I'm a natural halfback and it took me a while to get used to playing in the corner before, but that was before Paddy Moran and Ciaran Walsh were around. It was me and Mick Kennedy in the corners.

"It's an out and out marking job which doesn't suit me as a natural attacker but with Eamonn Heery in the number seven jersey - and me playing number seven on the team I was delighted to be handed a jersey at all."

Deegan's hopes were complicated by his desire to take some time off from inter county football after the All Ireland and play soccer for Irish League side Crusaders. While that continued he kept in touch with both Dublin and his football club. Whelan, a qualified soccer coach himself, was fairly accommodating.

"Until Crusaders finished, I trained with the Dublin panel and played with Erin's Isle to keep my eye in. Mickey didn't want me playing two games on the one weekend and said to me to concentrate on soccer, get it out of the way and come back afterwards."

On his return, he had seven weeks training and challenge matches to stake his claim. Reading the entrails of selection policy was tricky as he switched between left half back and corner back. Deegan knows the considerable difference in responsibilities between the positions.

He played in 1991 and 92 at right corner back, winning an All Star but also enduring some difficult afternoons as he struggled to curb some of his considerable assets pace and movement.

"Wing back is a bit looser, further from the goals. A wing back needs a bit of pace but a corner back has to be tight - give a good corner forward a yard and it's over the bar. You're not on the ball that much. My natural game is to move and lay off the ball."

There is a school of thought, that football and soccer are incompatible for players: that soccer requires you to stand off the ball, football to attack it. Deegan disagrees and believes that the demands of soccer can sharpen up a footballer.

"I always find anyone who's good at both has an awareness of people around. In soccer there's not so much time on the ball and you've got to think quicker. In gaelic, you can hold up the ball a lot more and you should be able to kill off a game if you want to."

He also believes the new management team has helped meet the requirements of a team many of whom have spent five years under the high tech baton of Fran Ryder's training regime which left them the fittest team in the country. Whelan, also a qualified physical trainer, has used that residue to maintain fitness levels without risking burn out.

"I think it's a good thing. After the training we were used to with Fran Ryder, I think Mickey realised the team was tired. He kept the ball work going and you can see it in our play. Fran was more for the stopwatch and times but Mickey uses the ball."

"He knew he was taking over a good squad and then he brought back a few fellas and some new fellas. Now there's an awful battle for places. I'd say it's the strongest panel we've ever had since I've been coming to training."