There was only one team that beat Dublin during the summer.
Carlow couldn’t do it, neither either could Westmeath or Kildare.
Monaghan and Tyrone didn’t get close. Mayo nearly did but, ultimately, they all came and could not conquer.
Only one team was able to beat Dublin and that was Dublin. The ‘B’ team in training that is.
There’s no need to harp on about how good Dublin’s starting line-up is, they went on to win three-in-a-row but their ‘B’ team isn’t half bad either.
Some of the likely names on the team include:
- Diarmuid Connolly – Two-time All-Star
- Bernard Brogan – Four-time All-Star, 2010 Player of the Year
- Paul Flynn – Four-time All-Star
- Michael Darragh Macauley – Two-time All-Star, 2013 Player of the Year
- Kevin McManamon
- Cormac Costello
- Eric Lowndes
- Denis Bastick
And that’s just naming a few. The strength in depth of the Dublin team is mouthwatering, to be perfectly honest, and you can only imagine how fierce their A vs B games are.
The two teams wouldn’t just be so well-drilled and so aware of what the other team is doing, but they’d be two excellent sides full of some of the best footballers in the country.
In the week of winning the All-Ireland, Con O’Callaghan spoke about the games and how hotly contested they are:
“I’d say we could have lost a couple but every ‘A’ v ‘B’ match is just seriously intense,” the All-Ireland final goalscorer said.
“There’s a couple of lads who don’t even make the B team on that and when they come in there’s a huge intensity in every match.
“The A’s are looking to beat the B’s and the B’s are looking to beat the A’s in every match.
“We get a proper referee, full intensity, full everything – with a match-day warm-up and go at it and there’s always a bit of bite in those matches and a bit of fight from everyone.”
Con O'Callaghan opens up on the Dublin A v B training games https://t.co/fza8F7g2nr
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) September 21, 2017
But it seems O’Callaghan was only being kind to the ‘B’ team. The ‘A’ team won most of the time, or at least that’s according to Paul Flynn.
Flynn was speaking at the launch of Coca-Cola’s designated driver campaign and said there were six games in total but that Con O’Callaghan was being generous with his estimation of the ‘B’ team winning a couple of times:
“Usually, there’d be around six, there wouldn’t be that many. There’d be little tasters of it but there’d be around six full length, full commitment and full physical contact and there’d be serious games.
“I remember one anyway (when the B’s won), I think Con (O’Callaghan) is being generous there to be honest because I was on the B’s a lot.
“I definitely remember one anyway but if you look at the lads that were on the B’s, there are lads that started a number of All-Ireland finals so it’s not that shocking to think.
“When you’re playing it, it’s different than a proper championship game because we know exactly what they’re going to do – every time they’re going to do a kick-out, every time they set up defensively and us trying to find holes in it so it’s good.
“Then there’s that competitive edge in it, there are only so many times you can get beaten by them so you have to step up once or twice.”
