Where does the time go?
This weekend, the man that delivered Dublin to their first All-Ireland football title in 16 years could be set to take over the hurling team.
It’s a toss-up between Pat Gilroy and Mattie Kenny with the former looking the more likely to get the job.
It’ll be a strange appointment but then you’re looking at a man that helped Dublin get over the line when they just couldn’t do it, and since then they just haven’t stopped winning.
After a loss to Mayo in 2012, Gilroy stepped down due to work commitments. What a terrible loss for Dublin GAA, but it transpired that there was a man waiting in the wings that was ready to transform Dublin into a beast of a team.
Five years ago Jim Gavin took over as Dublin boss and what a five years it has been.
Just have a quick look at his accolades ever since taking over:
- Four National Leagues
- Five Leinster titles
- Four All-Ireland titles
- Undefeated in the Leinster Championship
- One loss in the All-Ireland Championship in five years
Normally it is when a manager retires that people start to realise how good they really were at the helm but even now there are murmurs of the unthinkable, is Jim Gavin better than Kevin Heffernan?
‘Heffo’ was the man to transform Dublin, he won three All-Ireland titles with the county in his two stints as manager and made Dublin a force to be reckoned with but already Gavin has surpassed that.
it’s remarkable looking at how much Gavin has achieved as the manager, their win over Mayo this year meant that Dublin won three-in-row, a feat that hasn’t been achieved since the great Kerry team of the 1980’s after winning successive titles from 1984-1986, in this day and age that is a remarkable achievement and that’s not to mention that they’ve only lost once in championship football.
Dublin losing to Donegal may or may not be regarded as one of the greatest upsets in GAA history, despite Dublin being much fancied Donegal had won the All-Ireland back in 2012, they were still a force to be reckoned with.
But that’s not to say Dublin were adequately prepared that day, they panicked at the sight of the blanket defence and couldn’t handle Donegal on the counter-attack as they put three goals past Dublin and put them to the sword.
There were shockwaves sent around the GAA world, Dublin were meant to be the unbeatable team after all but then that perception was shattered.
Fast forward to the start of 2017 and Dublin had completed two in a row, they came back stronger and innovated every step of the way.
Every since then Dublin’s decision making has improved exponentially, they are methodically patient and being caught on the counter-attack like they did back in 2014 just doesn’t happen to them. That’s all down to Jim Gavin and his pursuit for excellence.
Perhaps the most impressive thing about Dublin in 2017 isn’t the fact that they lifted the Sam Maguire but how they dealt with Tyrone in the semi-final, this was the team that were had replicated the 2014 Donegal team and then some and Dublin tore them to shreds, an absolute annihilation. It was probably Dublin’s best performance under Gavin.
Compared to three years prior, Dublin were patient, they didn’t make one bad decision and didn’t allow themselves to be exposed defensively. It was nearly scary thinking how far this team had come along in such a short space of time, they’d climbed to the top of the mountain in 2013 but instead continued to get better.
For so long under Paul Caffrey, Dublin were a nearly team. A team that regularly featured in the All-Ireland Championship come the business end but could never get over the line, now they are a team of winners, this year’s final proved that. A hectic 70 minutes against Mayo where Dublin were largely outplayed but still found a way to dig deep and win.
And as Dublin enter 2018, there is no reason to believe that their success won’t continue. Gavin has placed huge emphasis on the young talent in the squad by starting young players such as Con O’Callaghan and the likes of Colm Basquel sure to make an impact in the next year. He’s a long-term planner.
Yet, despite all his success the Dublin manager still receives criticism. This year it was because of his lack of emotion after winning the All-Ireland which was explained by Cian O’Sullivan:
“He probably doesn’t show much emotion to the fans to the media for people watching games at home but that’s just the way he is, he’s very calm and collective individual and that is how he goes about his business,” the Kilmacud Crokes man told SportsJOE.
“He’s a top, top manager strategically and tactically and all that stuff he’s very impressive as well so there’s no surprises that he’s brought this team to where they’re at over the last couple of years.”
Whether Gavin deserves criticism or not is for another day but today, five years on from his appointment it is time to appreciate how much he has done for the game and raising the bar.
