ALL-IRELAND SFC FINAL: IAN O'RIORDANtalks to Dublin manager Pat Gilroy who is remaining calm in the eye of the storm as the All-Ireland showdown with Kerry approaches
HE CAME, as Robbie Kelleher said this week, out of the blue. No pun intended, presumably, but if Pat Gilroy came from relative obscurity to land the biggest job in Gaelic football, at least he came with the right colour blood running in his veins.
Or tangled up in blue, as someone else once said.
So, after 16 years, Dublin are back in the All-Ireland football final – or better still, back to face Kerry for the first time in the final since 1985. Live Aid, Back to the Future, Heysel disaster, etc. And Gilroy is the man riding them in on the blue chariot. Out of the blue, into the spotlight.
But to what soundtrack? Dublin haven’t beaten Kerry in the championship since the glory years of 1976 and 1977 and before that, it was 1934. Kelleher, as a survivor of that winning era in the 1970s, already found himself part of the nostalgia-fest this week, although he’s also ideally positioned to appraise Gilroy’s arrival into the big time.
When in October 2008 the Dublin County Board sought to find a replacement for Paul Caffrey they charged three men with presenting a shortlist: Kelleher, Pat O’Neill, and Kevin Heffernan.
Three blue legends.
“It was a gamble,” Kelleher recalled this week. “Heffernan knew him well. I think Heffernan is his godfather, unless I’m mistaken, and was very friendly with Pat’s father. Heffernan made the suggestion, we met him and we were just very impressed with him.
“He is a pretty successful businessman, firstly, but not that that necessarily makes a good football manager. But you could clearly see his skills in management. It was what he said, and proposed, and we thought he was worth a shot.”
He was, crucially, a Dub – and also came myth-free and baggage-free: indeed in his three seasons in charge Gilroy has found himself breaking down the few myths that did surround him. No, Kevin Heffernan isn’t his godfather. Nor did Heffernan drive his appointment through. It was actually Pat O’Neill who first suggested Gilroy when asked who he thought was the brightest of the 1995 panel, when Dublin last won the All-Ireland.
That may turn out to be the key connection in all this. Gilroy won a medal as a substitute in that 1995 All-Ireland final, the only current link with that team, so at least nothing about this final countdown will be news to him. He also went through it in 1992, when Dublin lost the All-Ireland final to Donegal.
“I would have actually enjoyed all the build-up of those All-Irelands,” said Gilroy, during the twelfth round of interviews at the Dublin media day, last Friday.
“Looking back now, I think the one in 1992 wasn’t right from the players’ perspective. I think management were doing their best, but as players we, as a group, let ourselves down. The other build-ups I was involved in were right. We won one, we lost one but the build-ups were right.
“It’s enjoyable but it’s enjoyable doing work. There’s an awful lot of physical preparation even though you’re only a week or two out. And there is probably more talk about the game these days. Croke Park wasn’t fully developed at that time and it’s a different place. There’s more media stuff, and more online stuff.
“Of course I remember the Dublin-Kerry rivalry as well, and they were great days, the matches were great to watch. I remember going to all of them, and being disappointed a few times, and having great times after some of the games as well. It was a great rivalry back then but over the last 10 years it has been one-way traffic, with Kerry winning. You couldn’t call it a rivalry, being one-way traffic.”
Gilroy can’t be accused of fanning the Dublin hype: quite the opposite, in fact. He’s brought his business acumen to the sideline, and even if he doesn’t exactly regard it as work, he seems to go about it that way. Put the work in, you get the rewards somewhere down the line.
“The first thing I’ve noticed certainly is that the general public have been good to us this year, giving us space, leaving players alone and not asking them for tickets the night before the game. Things that were happening in the past.
“But I also think the hype is great. It’s great for supporters, everybody who’s not associated with the team. It should be enjoyed by people, but we’ve so much work you don’t get time to get involved. That’s the important factor. To make sure that we don’t have that time. And we’ve talked to people well in advance and let them understand that side of things, that it’s not going to help the team. People in general have been good.”
That’s the sideshow: it’s what happens between the four white lines that matters – and Gilroy’s certainly no stranger to that.
He was born and raised into a football family, in more ways than one, as his late father Jackie Gilroy had them dreaming and hoping and bubbling with enthusiasm both at home and down at the club, St Vincent’s.
“My father would have been happy for me to play anything, as long as it was with Vincent’s, and it was football and hurling. My kids have a similar choice.
“But the biggest thing that the ’70s thing did was that football and hurling is really strong in Dublin now. You look at our panel and you’ve got guys from the north, south, east and west and that’s a very even representation.
“After the ’70s it spread and maybe with integrating all of that with people and clubs it has taken time, getting a united team. Not that there were any fractions, but it’s now very spread out and that’s what the ’70s did.
“Clubs like Kilmacud and Ballyboden didn’t really exist as strongholds at the time and now they’re doing fantastic work and that’s coming through now with the county team.”
Still, coming from such obscurity brought inevitable pressure, or at least attention. Gilroy didn’t have any previous managerial experience, although he was a serious voice both in the dressing-room and on the field when St Vincent’s won the 2008 All-Ireland club title – playing an omnipresent yet laid-back role at full forward.
He knows what matters: commitment, discipline. In his later playing years he would frequently lose heroic amounts of weight to shape up for the club season – and it’s no surprise he’s brought that disciplined training to this Dublin panel, not just the early morning sessions.
These days, a few weeks past his 41st birthday, he appears no more or no less stressed about the demands of managing Dublin as he did trying to win that elusive club All-Ireland in his late 30s.
“I wouldn’t say I’ve had a lot of stress, to be honest. Football is not something that gives me stress. I can get annoyed about things and be unhappy about things but certainly wouldn’t get stressed about it. It’s a very enjoyable thing that we do here, and we’re very lucky. It’s a pleasure to work with a group like this.
“Certainly, last year’s defeat to Cork was devastating, but as I said before, if I see my son lose an under-12 championship match I’m devastated for him too. That’s the nature of championship. You’re devastated by it. But you always want to try and make it right. I couldn’t say I’ve had a particularly low point when I said, ‘Aw here, I want to give this up’.
“After last year we lost the semi-final to the eventual winners by a point, so we were very determined to get back to this stage. It’s great to get to a final but once you enter any competition you really do want to go out and win it. We were devastated last year after losing. A couple of months afterwards we could look back and say there was some positives to take out of it but at the end of the day if we lose this game next Sunday we will be devastated.”
There have been some hard lessons to get here – none more painful perhaps that the 2009 All-Ireland quarter-final, when Kerry had Dublin fairly smoked inside the first 15 minutes, winning 1-24 to 1-7 and prompting Gilroy to use the analogy of “startled earwigs”. He may regret the result, but not what he said.
“To be honest that’s what we were like that day . . . The main thing was our defending. We were well capable of scoring back then. We didn’t score a great deal in that game, but we were well capable of doing it. The main thing that’s improved is our defending and since last year the biggest improvement has been in our discipline and not giving away as many frees. We gave very few away the last day against Donegal, that were scoreable anyway . . .
“But then it wasn’t just our defence. It was where it was starting from. We were letting Kerry move the ball far too easy from end to end that day. It didn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that was the key area we needed to improve if we were going to progress as a team and we put a big focus into doing that.
“But every team now when they lose the ball, the fellas don’t just stand there looking at the opposition. Kerry don’t stand there looking at you moving out with the ball.
“When we go forward with the ball fellas go forward with it . . . Most teams now, when you lose the ball their forwards are coming back to try and get it back, they don’t just stand and admire the opposition.
“I think a lot can be made of dropping players back. We don’t just drop players back for the sake of doing it. They’re doing a job while the opposition has the ball, they don’t just sit back there.”
Important lessons then, and no regrets: “No, I don’t regret things, but I like to learn from them. I think I’ve learned a huge amount over the three years and I’ve no doubt as in everything in life you’ll just keep on learning.
“If you keep harking back then you’re stuck. But if you decide ‘I’m going to learn from this’ always trying to move forward. That’s my genuine view – I’m not one to really dwell on things other than from the point of view ‘what can I learn?’ and ‘how can I ensure it won’t happen in the future?’
“We’ve had bad starts and fallen behind in a number of championship matches and responded really well and it’s really important that we do that. We certainly don’t want to have a bad start next Sunday but if we do I don’t think it’ll affect us greatly.”
When it comes to the challenge Kerry will present in Croke Park on All-Ireland football final day – and what Dublin will need to do to beat them – Gilroy at once seemed to lighten up and also spark up.
“Kerry guys seem to be very greedy. Once they get to finals they don’t lose too many of them. They always seem to feel like they’ve a point to prove. At the end of the day we hope that we will have more hunger because it’s a long time since we won one but I don’t think Kerry will be lacking in that department.
“And they usually save their best performance for the last day. You look at the forward line. There’s not a whole pile of weakness even though there’s fellas who’ve left. Their backs are no slouches either, they’re deservedly in the final. No one really came near them bar Cork. I don’t see much weakness there compared to two years ago.
“But maybe there’s a huge expectancy in their county that they’re just going to win this game, because that’s what Kerry do. So I suppose there’s a fair bit of pressure on them too, to go out and perform because Kerry teams have done this all the time, in the last 90 years, against Dublin. They don’t want to be the first that doesn’t. There’s a fair bit of experience on them to perform whereas with us it’s a new experience and people in Dublin are happy that we’ve got to a final. They see it as progress but from our own point of view we want to win the game.”
And if some people still think teams have to lose an All-Ireland final before they win one then Gilroy begs to differ.
“I wouldn’t buy into that. Last year we were beaten by the All-Ireland champions by a point, and that particular game had a feel of a final-type about it. Experience does help, but I don’t believe you have to lose one to win one, no. I was involved with a Vincent’s team, we hadn’t won a Dublin championship in 19 years and then we went and won an All-Ireland in the first go so, no, at all.”
Out of the blue then, sometimes the best way All-Irelands are won.
Scanlon’s Scare
KERRY have a major injury dilemma going into next weekend’s All-Ireland final clash with Dublin with midfielder Séamus Scanlon at the centre of another health scare.
The three-times All-Ireland medal winner was yesterday released from hospital in Limerick where it is understood he had been treated for the recurrence of a benign cyst on his neck.
The problem first materialised following this year’s championship opener against Tipperary in May and surgeons told him at the time that it would eventually require surgery. It is believed the cyst became infected last week and Scanlon was admitted to hospital last Wednesday morning to have it drained and treated.
Sources in the Kerry camp said the 29-year-old Currow clubman is considered a real doubt for the Croke Park clash.
Scanlon missed last weekend’s two-day training camp at Fota in Cork and was unavailable for all training sessions over the past week. He also missed last night’s A v B encounter which was played behind closed doors at Fitzgerald Stadium in Killarney.
