Quicksand.
The harder you fight it, the deeper you sink and Dublin’s strategy after scoring goals is designed to suffocate you.
You see, when you’re playing this Dublin team, you’re not just playing against better footballers. You playing the sky blue jersey. You’re playing Croke Park. You’re playing the occasion. There’s no getting away from that – not once one thing goes wrong for you anyway.
Keanu Reaves could describe the feeling better though – honestly. In the movie The Replacements, they spoke about quicksand.
“You’re playing and you think everything is going fine, but then one thing goes wrong.
“And another.
“And another.
“You try to fight back but the harder you fight, the deeper you sink. Until you can’t move.”
It seems that Jim Gavin targets that psychological vulnerability that comes with opposition teams who are tasked with facing off with the champions at headquarters.
Speaking in a frank and honest interview on The GAA Hour, Westmeath manager Tom Cribbin gave a fascinating insight into Dublin’s strategy for after they’ve just raised a green flag.
It was two quick goals that killed off the Lake County in last year’s Leinster final and Cribbin says it is a deliberate tactic. Unfortunately for them, Darren Quinn and Westmeath were at the receiving end of it in 2016.
“It’s well known that, when Dublin get a goal, they work tremendously hard in their sessions at trying to get the next score at all costs to really put a question to the opposition,” Cribbin said.
“You discuss all these things and you talk through them but the ‘keeper then has to make a split decision and it’s very hard to get the kickouts away against Dublin anyway. He [Quinn last year] obviously saw an opening and he just reacted really quick to it – in a pressure cooker situation.
“It’s difficult – no matter how much you rehearse these things and go through them – until you’re in a stadium with 40 or 50 thousand people and you’re in that pressure cooker situation… you either react properly to it or you don’t.
“You’re hoping that you get it right but the only way that you will is being in that situation enough times and learning from your mistakes and learning how to cope with it.”
That’s why they go gung-ho once they get a hand on your throat. Relentless. Merciless.
Listen to the full interview below from 21:11.
