Dublin beat Galway to claim the last Under-21 All-Ireland football crown before the grade switches to Under-20 next year.
Their fourth of the decade, Saturday evening’s win confirmed that Con O’Callaghan will not swing a hurl in anger for Ger Cunningham this year, that Evan Comerford is the heir apparent to Stephen Cluxton and that Dessie Farrell is capable of stepping into Jim Gavin’s shoes if and when the senior manager decides to step away.
Champions. @DubGAAOfficial 2-13 – 2-7 @Galway_GAA pic.twitter.com/kV8ZmekaFh
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) April 29, 2017
This was a wonderful team performance from the favourites, who scored 1-4 without reply after the break to open up a lead that proved unassailable.
It is fitting that Dublin should claim the final U21 football crown, such has been their recent success at the grade. Their total of five titles falls a long way short of Cork’s record of 11, or great rival Kerry’s 10 All-Irelands, but they have recently used the competition to prove the mettle of future senior players.
Davy Byrne, John Small, Jack McCaffrey, Brian Fenton, Eric Lowndes, Paul Mannion, Niall Scully and Cormac Costello all graduated from the class of 2014.
Ciarán Kilkenny from the 2012 team, Rory O’Carroll, James McCarthy, Jonny Cooper and Dean Rock from 2010.
Lowndes, Byrne and Costello are a trio who have All-Ireland minor, Under-21 and senior medals but, for the most part, Dublin’s U21 dominance is not built on minor success. That 2012 minor title being Dublin’s sole win in 33 years.
In contrast Kerry have won three minor titles on the spin, but fell at the penultimate hurdle to beaten finalists Galway in this year’s U21 championship.
Dublin have won three Leinster minor titles this decade but have seen Kildare dominate the province recently. In contrast, they have won six of the last eight Leinster U21 championships.
If Dublin’s dominance at U21 is not built on minor success, what explains it? Could it be a result of the county’s superb coaching structures?
First under Gavin and now Farrell, Dublin’s U21 panel is being treated as a proving ground for future senior players. They play a similar, exhilarating style of football to the seniors and, with Comerford in particular, you can see a player being moulded to slot in and replace a goalkeeper some thought irreplaceable.
The Ballymun ‘keeper’s kick-out technique and accuracy is very similar to the style of Cluxton, which has revolutionised the game.
While Kerry are counting on a golden generation of minors providing the talent to challenge Dublin at senior in the years to come, Dublin seem happy to nurture their talent a little later.
The Kingdom’s three All-Ireland minor titles on the trot suggests a lot of talented footballers, but Dublin’s U21 juggernaut hints at a reliable supply of top-class senior footballers.
Which would you prefer to have?
It is also another pin in this theory that Dublin’s current domination at senior level is built on a once in a lifetime generation of talent and there will not be another Bernard Brogan (O’Callaghan) or Cluxton (Comerford) coming along any time soon.
Thanks to their massive resources, their level of planning and the quality of their coaching structures, Dublin have constructed a conveyor belt of talent that is not tied to minor triumphs.
This latest and final U21 win suggests Dublin footballers are not born, they are made.
