Dublin hammer a team, the nation wants the championship restructured. Because it’s not fair. Well, it’s not fair on Dublin either.
Jim Gavin would probably throw his shoulder behind the wheel of change if it meant his side were given sterner tests earlier in the summer.
In the aftermath of another obliteration courtesy of the sky blues – this time, Longford the victims – Pat Spillane threw his hands in the air and exclaimed that there was no point analysing that game. Colm O’Rourke said that Dublin won’t know where they are until August.
By that stage, it’s too damn late.
By that stage, they run into a Donegal.
Take Donegal as an example. If the Ulster champions were going to make it to Croke Park again through the front door this year, they’ll have to do it having come through four bloody battles.
They’ll have to do it having seen off Tyrone, then Kieran McGeeney’s stubborn Armagh, then Derry or Down, then probably Monaghan. That’s all before they can even think of a quarter final.
Dublin, meanwhile, will stroll along for a few bouts of unchallenged shooting practice. They’ll run over the top of anyone so naive not to approach with caution and, when they do, we’ll be told that the championship needs split in two. Then, when they come up against a battle-hardened side with a bit of cop on and a bit of grit, we’ll be told that all the rules of the game need revisited.
It’s a tiresome process but one which Jim Gavin himself is probably sick of, too.
Without a genuine challenge to ask them any sort of questions in their first four games or so, the best side in Ireland is constantly at risk of being caught out when it really matters.
Take Sunday’s 4-25 to 0-10 slaughtering of Longford for instance. It’s clear as day that the manager is working at the pace of their attacks. The pass count is down – sometimes – and they’re going straight for the jugular.
We used to do this repetitive drill when we played minors: the ‘keeper would kick it out, the midfielder would kick it forward, the forward would kick it further, the ball would go over the bar. Three passes from the kick out. Sometimes the ball didn’t even touch the ground.
Only twice did Dublin’s pass count reach over 10 in that first half, they tried to make things quicker, with more purpose.
In fact, their average passes to score on Sunday was just over 5.
It’s easier to fall into bad habits though when you don’t really need to do a certain tactic, for now.
Longford played with men forward – heck, they did what some of the purists wanted a team like Derry to do a couple of months back – and they took their beating, wide open for all the world to come waltzing through.
Dublin didn’t always need to keep their pass count down because they could just brush pass the opposing defenders almost unchallenged. Run off the shoulder, find a free man every single second.
And it told with how the passing trends shifted after half time.
41 per cent of Dublin’s first half passes were kicked. That is an incredible statistic and it shows just slick and how quick the manager wants his team to be. When you come up against swarming numbers at the back, you need to act swiftly or just forget about it.
But look how it changes courtesy of a 12-point half time deficit.
It was much too easy to not stay tuned into the game plan, to just walk around an already-beaten Longford, and take the handiest way out with the game long since dead and buried.
Against a side like Donegal or Armagh or even Mayo or Kerry, you can pass and solo all you like outside the danger zone, they’ll let you do it. Slow down at your peril.
Then you look at where the ball was turned over.
62 times Dublin had possession going towards the Longford goals, they got a return of 29 scores, but they lost the ball in dangerous positions.
Might not look very threatening, but you lose the balls in those areas against a side like Donegal, you lose the game.
Have all the possession, all the passes that you like, when the ball is turned over in open play against a better counter-attacking side, it usually results in a shot at the other end.
Longford meanwhile managed just two scores at either side of the second half, both from dead balls, despite stripping a gung-ho Dublin of the ball on numerous occasions.
We analysed Donegal’s performance against Tyrone and, when they have the ball, by God do they make it count.
But until they’re really tested, those sort of mistakes will go unpunished for Jim Gavin’s men. Until it really matters, they won’t know more about themselves.
That’s nearly not fair on Dublin because, by then, it could be too late.
