There’s no point criticising Jim Gavin’s selections.
At this rate he could start fifteen unknown minor lads and they would still manage to win.
Maybe Diarmuid Connolly should have started on Sunday, maybe Eoghan O’Gara shouldn’t have but it doesn’t matter because Dublin won and that’s that.
There was so much talk about the strength of the Dublin bench in the build-up to the game against Mayo, you have the likes of Bernard Brogan, Diarmuid Connolly and Paul Flynn on the bench along with everyone else.
You also have Michael Darragh Macauley there, a man that has a Footballer of the Year award to his name. He didn’t even get on the pitch.
It has been a tough year for the Ballyboden man after suffering an injury against St. Oliver Plunkett’s in the Dublin Championship but featured against Monaghan in the quarterfinals but that was all she wrote for the 31-year-old.
On the All-Ireland review show, show host Colm Parkinson along with pundit and former Meath forward Cian Ward were both flabbergasted as to why Macauley didn’t play and felt that he had a right to feel aggrieved:
“Michael Darragh Macauley didn’t even come on,” said Ward.Â
“He would usually be a man that has a massive impact because he’s just a ball of energy when he comes in.”
And Parkinson agreed, pointing out that Macauley had been warming up on the sidelines throughout the match.
“He’d have to be really pissed off,” Ward continued.
“That he didn’t get in without a shadow of a doubt because especially when you consider Dublin were under pressure for large periods of the game around that middle third.
“He wouldn’t necessarily have to had come on directly into the middle of the field but he could have come on in the half forward line and just drifted back there, he would have added huge energy into the team.
“You could argue he might have had more of an impact than Bernard Brogan because Brogan didn’t do anything when he came on and, to be honest, looked like he was a little bit off the pace of it.”
You have to feel for a man that fought his way to get fit for the final not getting a run-out but as Jim Gavin made clear this summer, you earn your jersey and it is hard to criticise a man that has won four of the last five All-Ireland titles.
