“Stop making a Ferrari do a bloody tractor’s work.”
The words of SportsJOE GAA editor Colm Parkinson on this week’s GAA Hour when discussing the role of Diarmuid Connolly.
This Sunday afternoon in Parnell Park, Dublin football fans will turn out in their droves to watch the St Vincent’s man face off against his All-Ireland winning team-mate Jonny Cooper and Na Fianna in the Dublin SFC.
After a summer of sacrifice and tracking back, many will travel to Donnycarney expecting the return of the free-scoring, free-spirited menace of Dublin club defences.
The man is capable of scoring 2-5 in an All-Ireland club final, after all.
“Anyone who doesn't appreciate what Diarmuid Connolly can do simply doesn't appreciate football at its best…” https://t.co/QIpEumHsbc #GAA
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) October 3, 2016
No one is denying the quality of his performances this summer, they have been enough to make Conan Doherty weak at the knees on several occasions. However, playing outside finishers like Dean Rock and Bernard Brogan in the Dublin forward line has seen his role altered.
The fact he, at this moment in time, only has one All-Star to his name, may be a symptom of a selfless streak that sees the 29-year-old perform a lot of grunt work for those around him – tackling, tracking, carrying the ball from deep and, as Alan Brogan will testify, making decoy runs.
On The GAA Hour Brogan’s former team-mate Senan Connell shared the retired Dublin star’s recollections of his now famous final act in intercounty football – the insurance point in the 2015 All-Ireland final win over Kerry.
Most people remember the point (1’57” of the video below). Picking up the ball for the first time after his 66th minute introduction, Brogan plays a ball up the line to his brother Bernard, takes the return pass and bursts into the Kerry half.
As he surges forward it is Connolly who appears on his right shoulder, sprinting past the fresh replacement (in the dying moments of a punishing encounter) and drawing Peter Crowley out of Brogan’s path, opening up the space for the left-footed shot.
“If you look at that again, Diarmuid came bursting off his shoulder and ran into the corner and drew a Kerry player with him, out of the space that Alan had,” says Connell.
“Alan was looking to give him the ball, as I remember, Alan was over-carrying, Alan was looking to give it. Then Diarmuid goes running past, with his head down, and Alan puts it over the bar.
“Alan said to Diarmuid afterwards, ‘Did you want that ball?’ He said, ‘I did in my fuck. I was just making the space for you’. That sums him up. Late in the game, when nobody had legs: ‘I need to get this man out of his way, this is Brogey, he is going to pop this’.”
And pop it he did.
Listen to the Connolly conversation from the 43 minutes onwards below (or listen to the whole Podcast, it’s really good).
