Ruthless efficiency.
There’s no two words more associated with Jim Gavin and his current Dublin outfit. These lads are the finest group of players the GAA world has seen in quite a while. They have scandalous talent, a work-rate to match and the business-like manner with which they perform their duties makes them even more scary.
Nothing fazes these lads, whether they make a rare mistake, or score a wonderful goal or point, their demeanour remains the same. The poker-face is almost always in tact, and you’d have to wonder are they instructed to give nothing away in their body-language, or whether it’s ingrained within them to be so insatiable.
This attitude is never-more portrayed than when they score a goal. They sprint back to their position, they point at their team-mates in preparation for the kick out. They don’t take it all in, they don’t celebrate.
Is this natural? It can’t be. All of us as youngsters share that same dream to burst the net for our county with a goal in front of a crowd going wild.
When we are eight or nine and practicing at our local GAA field, we mimic such events. We run towards the goals, with the commentary going through our minds, we belt it into the top corner. What’s the best part? It was always the explosion of joy in the celebration that follows.
Con O’Callaghan is only a 20-year-old. He must have to pinch himself every time he represents the Dubs and plays alongside his county’s legends, who were probably heroes of his two or three years ago.
When O’Callaghan scored that ridiculous goal against Tyrone on Sunday, it must have been the best feeling ever, you would have thought he would have went wild.
He just ran back to his position. There wasn’t even so much as a fist-pump.
This Dublin side’s ruthless streak came up for discussion on Monday’s GAA Hour, and Colm Parkinson was disappointed that O’Callaghan didn’t express himself with his celebration, like he does on the field of play.
“He didn’t celebrate the goal which I would like to have seen. We’ve talked about that before, that’s probably not his choice. You’d have liked to have seen him giving the fist to the hill there. What a feeling that must be to score a goal into the hill in an All-Ireland semi-final for a man that’s only 21 this year,” said the Laois man.
O’Callaghan knows his job, though. He knows what Jim Gavin wants and he wasn’t going to do anything out of the ordinary. These lads are trained to win, they’re trained to be ruthless.
“Jesus Con, put your fist up there. I don’t think he’s much of a showman, he’s almost like the exact type of player Jim Gavin wants. He’s like heaven for him. There’s no heirs and graces about him, he’s a very level-headed young fella, he’s not going to be plastered across all the buses around Dublin. ” added Parkinson.
Cian Ward quipped that he’s not the type of player you’d see with a fancy hairstyle.
“No hair-gel in the hair or nothing.”
We all love a good goal celebration, when a player lets it all out. When something they’ve worked so hard for comes to fruition, surely they’ve earned themselves the right to celebrate.
You can listen to this discussion from 1 hour 20 min on Monday’s GAA Hour right here.
