Seán Bugler insists Dublin‘s ambition to be crowned All-Ireland champions remains unchanged despite relinquishing their 14-year grip on the Delaney Cup last Sunday.
Dublin’s Leinster semi-final defeat to Meath in Portlaoise sent shock waves throughout the province and beyond, raising doubts about their Sam Maguire credentials. However, Bugler believes there is enough quality in the Dublin dressingroom to pick up the pieces from that loss and mount a challenge for Gaelic football’s ultimate prize.
“Losing any game you might question your confidence, but I see the talent and everyone sees the talent within the group,” he says.
“Yes, we haven’t performed to our best, but the draw is going to be made on Wednesday – you could get a tough group, but we’ll cherish it. If you want to win the All-Ireland, which we do, you’re going to have to knock the big teams off their horse as well. So we’ll look forward to it, and we’ll really go after it.
“Full credit to Meath [last weekend], they deserved to win on the day. They came up with a game plan, they stuck with it, they executed it. They fully deserved their win. I suppose the positive thing for us is we’re still in the championship. Our goal of winning the Sam Maguire hasn’t changed.”
Bugler’s absence because of injury was a major blow for Dublin. The flying half-forward was their best player in the National League – picking up four man of the match awards – but missed Sunday’s Portlaoise contest because of an ankle injury.
“I just picked up a niggle there last week, Sunday probably came a bit too early for me. I was disappointed to miss out on the game. I’ll hopefully be back on the pitch in the next few days.”
Bugler travelled to O’Moore Park with some of his fellow injured team-mates and found it difficult to sit in the stand watching as the Dubs lost their first game in the province since 2010.
“You want to be out there, I was obviously disappointed to miss out on the game, and then you kind of see how the first half pans out. You always feel that you can make a difference out there but the game came too early for me.
“It was really disappointing, we just didn’t perform on the day, basic errors. The fundamentals, we just didn’t execute them. Look, no matter who you’re playing, if you’re not going to execute the basic skills for a full 70 minutes, you’re going to be chasing your tail.
“Consistency is obviously something we’re trying to go after. We know we’re coming to the business end of the season now, so we can’t afford to go through phases of up and down in terms of performance. We really need to go and play well for a full 70 minutes.”
Much has been made of the impact the venue had on the outcome of last Sunday’s match. It was the first time Dublin and Meath had played a championship match outside of Croke Park since 1980.
Dublin will be on the road again in their first round-robin game of the All-Ireland series when they must travel to the home of a provincial winner.
“I know from within the group we love to travel down the country, we love hopping on the bus, it’s great seeing the Dublin support because they always come out and back us,” says Bugler.
“The atmosphere there on Sunday, you could have the same atmosphere in Croke Park and it [would have felt] dead. For us I know we probably haven’t been as good on the road [this season] but we really do enjoy it and the atmosphere really makes the occasion. We’ve had some really good days on the road as well, it’s not all doom and gloom this year.”
The 27-year-old, who has been on the panel since 2019, has emerged as one of the new leaders within the Dublin dressingroom. And given the number of high-profile retirements in recent months, on-field generals are something Dessie Farrell needs to unearth if Dublin are to bounce back in the All-Ireland series.
“The likes of Brian Fenton, James McCarthy, Paul Mannion, Jack McCaffrey, Fitzy [Michael Fitzsimons], their experience is through the roof, not alone their talent,” says Bugler. “And to take them out of a group, the onus is on people to step up. I suppose the players we have there, the likes of Paddy Small, Brian Howard, Eoin Murchan, our age group, it’s over to us now to really step up and lead by example, on and off the field.”
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