It’s still January, relax.
But there are plenty of topics that genuinely need discussing after Dublin beat Kerry 2-14 to 0-14 in the opening game of the Allianz Football League.
Paddy Andrews is the real deal
You talk about the Dublin forward line and you talk about Connolly, about Brogan, about Flynn and Kilkenny. They have a pool of talent, we know that but perhaps the others outside of that notorious quartet have never been held in the same esteem.
Kevin McManamon is a legend, Dean Rock is a dead ball specialist and Eoghan O’Gara might be injured but everyone knows he’s a beast. Here is Paddy Andrews though: the real deal.
This guy isn’t a bonus. He isn’t a fifth choice forward and he sure as hell is not just an extra man. Paddy Andrews has evolved almost meteorically. When he finally won his jersey last season, he refused to let it go and morphed so much that he began to take control of Dublin’s big games when the rest of them were occupied.
What’s scariest is that his opening game of the 2016 season – his 1-4 from play – showed that he, too, now knows that he is a big player for Dublin. He’s comfortable in his skin and he’s comfortable in that jersey. And he just went and tore the Kingdom a new one on Saturday night. Again.
Kerry couldn’t give a toss
They never seem to care too much anyway in the league but, whilst Dublin admittedly outplayed them all over the park in the Allianz League opener, Kerry just were not bothered.
It started at the top. Éamonn Fitzmaurice seemed more content with just getting a good look at Dublin than he did about actually setting his team up. The wide open spaces that Kerry allowed the champions in Croke Park was simply crazy but Fitzmaurice is not a crazy man. He was happy to just go toe-to-toe whilst we’re still in January and watch a game of football.
When the two sides meet at the end of August or in September, Kerry will resemble absolutely nothing from this performance.
The Donnchadh Walsh role is moot
Donnchadh Walsh is a fine footballer and he could play anywhere in that middle third for the Kingdom but you just can’t have players running around loosely on a football field at this level anymore.
Tommy Walsh was dropping into a free role early on too but unless you’re committing a full blanket of sweepers, you’ll get punished for having these half-way, half-clear positions deployed in the team.
Donnchadh Walsh goes through a ridiculous amount of work but it just invites players to probe from deep – on Saturday night, for instance, they ran into the best half back line in the country. Mayo got strung up in September for dropping one man in front of their full back line and allowing Philly McMahon to run riot. Donnchadh Walsh ended up with a black card in this league opener. Unfortunately when it comes to precaution in defence nowadays, it’s all or nothing.
There are too many finely-tuned athletes deployed in sophisticated systems to think that having a work horse running around the middle will be enough to reinforce your rearguard.
Darran O’Sullivan has a big role to play
He won’t want it to be from the bench either.
O’Sullivan has always been there when Kerry needed him and he played huge hands in their wins coming in during the second half last season but he hasn’t lost his sharpness or his energy and, each year, he’s playing with more experience and more leadership.
The game has gone past the need for battering rams and bulky footballers, pace is now key. Guess what? Darran has it in spades.
Cian O’Sullivan is a beautiful man
That centre half back role is his now. Dublin were crying out for an enforcer to glue together their backline and they found one who just so happens to play some of the best ball in the land.
O’Sullivan could feel hard-done-by for not winning Footballer of the Year last season. He doesn’t just lead from the back or hammer into attackers or time some of the finest text book tackles we’ve seen, the way he spins and pulls back on the ball and coolly picks passes allows him to control games from number six and start the Dublin assaults directly and efficiently like clockwork.
He really does have all the tools to become one of the best centre backs of this generation.
