On the back of what is now a 35-game unbeaten run for his Dublin side, confidence should not be an issue for any of Jim Gavin’s Dublin players.
Cian Ward touched upon this during ‘The GAA Hour’ on Monday arguing that Gavin’s main job is to actually avoid over confidence in his squad.
Gavin has certainly been trying his best to avoid a trend of cockiness and invincibility seeping into his squad, just ask David Byrne.
The 22-year-old corner back has started both of Dublin’s last two league games against Kerry and Roscommon. The unfortunate thing for the Naomh Olaf’s club man is that he hasn’t appeared for the second half in either of these games. He was withdrawn from proceedings at half-time in Austin Stack Park in Tralee before being called ashore after a mere 30 minutes in their hammering of Roscommon.
Speaking on ‘The GAA Hour’ on Monday, Ward revealed the reason behind the ruthlessness.
“All he has to do is keep them from becoming over confident and complacent…Davy Byrne got whipped off after 30 minutes, and in fairness he was getting a bit of a run around off Enda Smith, but that’s the sort of stuff you’re doing.
“Most managers would say, ‘ah we’re well on top here, I’ll give him till half time’ you know? Whereas he’s doing the sort of thing where its keeping everybody on their toes and he’s not really giving them any praise publicly, now he may be doing a lot of it privately, but I suspect he probably isn’t either.”
Gavin is certainly in a unique position as a manager in that confidence is held in abundance throughout his squad. He obviously feels that the best way to manage this air of confidence within his squad is to bring his players back down to earth as much as possible and to keep their feet on the ground.
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Colm Parkinson feels that Gavin’s tough love type approach to his players is a reflection on the conservative nature of GAA managers in general.
“If Jim Gavin went the other way and tapped into that Dublin arrogance, ‘We are Dublin’, I often think that whoever manages Cork should tap into that. There’s an arrogance there that should be harnessed, not kind of put underneath the surface. But that’ll never happen in the GAA because we’re terrified of the old cliché of the dressing room wall.”
This ruthlessness, however is a motivational strategy that is paying dividends for Gavin and his squad as they lead the Division 1 table of the National League and will aim for their third Sam Maguire in a row later in the year.
It will take a brave man to bet against them.
