This guy will kill you to death inside of three rounds.
Have a look at this front eight.
Pacey, energetic, clever, deadly.
What’s the most frightening thing about it? It’s a back-up.
That’s right, this is currently Dublin’s reserve attack when that alone would walk through Leinster.
This is the front eight that tore Longford a new one and probably the same attack that will start against Kildare on Sunday (throw-in 4pm).
How do you stop it? What do you do?
Jim McGuinness spoke after last year’s All-Ireland semi final – after one of the greatest performances of all time – and he said that he was a big believer in the idea that you could win any game of football on any given day.
The notion alone is enough to raise the hairs on the back of your neck but, in the build-up to that given day, your preparation has to be flawless (Donegal’s speaks for itself), your luck has to be with you (Dublin’s missed goal chances in the first half), and you also have to have the tools. Donegal had them. Do Kildare?
That’s the thing that people just don’t seem to appreciate with Donegal. So many club teams and even counties have tried to copy what McGuinness did when he took over in Ballybofey. Yes, they threw numbers behind the ball, they counter-attacked, but they had the team to do it.
And, more importantly, they had an attack that could survive with less numbers up top because they were good enough players to fend for themselves.
Too many teams are swarming numbers back in defence and not thinking about how it will really affect their own outfit at the other side of the field. Then they can’t understand why their average forwards (in comparison) aren’t scoring enough to win the game when they’re outnumbered up top.
But Kildare do need to be mindful of their rearguard. That’s just their first port of call because the space Longford offered Dublin in their quarter final match was inexcusable.
Jason Ryan is an astute manager and he will know how to fill the space in front of the likes of Brogan, McManamon and Rock. The problem is though that you do that at the risk of letting Connolly, Kilkenny and Flynn off the leash. Players who could hurt you even more.
Besides, Jim Gavin is clearly trying to learn the lessons that last year offered. An analysis of their passing performance against Longford shows their intent. They’re trying to go quicker, more direct, less hanging around and they’re trying to stop teams from filtering numbers back in time to frustrate them.
Almost half of their passes throughout the opening 35 minutes of their first game were kick passes. That really is an incredible stat and it was a tactic that gave Longford no chance to set up and settle into the game.
So they cut right through them.
Dublin go long and the runners back it up. Kick and chase, textbook football and it’s just a nice bonus that they have two of the best players in Ireland like Flynn and Connolly following up.
The speed of their attacks are even quicker than what we saw last year when they were labelled invincible. Kick, kick and Longford are scrambling, falling face-first, turning their heads and the net is rippling.
But even their hand passing has purpose. Those with an inexplicable hatred for someone fisting the ball to someone else, avert your eyes.
That gripe is completely unfounded and, when a side like Dublin sweep through you like they did for Dean Rock’s goal, it is poetry in motion.
Since last weekend, it is sounding like a bit of a broken record: that managers aren’t thinking of how they can win a game, they’re thinking of limiting the opposition instead – but an analysis of Sligo and Antrim showed how they broke the mould.
Kildare don’t have enough firepower to hurt Dublin and score as many as the Dubs can and, even at that, they can’t really afford to think about it anyway because there’s about to be a bloody riot unleashed at their own end.
Who’d be a manager?
