CIARÁN WHELAN DIDN’T find out much about Dublin’s All-Ireland prospects from their hammering of Cork in the recent Allianz Football League final.
What he did learn, however, is that the Rebels don’t look ready to challenge in September. In spite of their impressive semi-final win over Donegal, Cork were brushed aside with ease by a Dublin team who never had to hit fifth-gear to secure an 11-point win.
Whelan believes Brian Cuthbert’s side have problems at midfield and that mental frailty is an even greater concern. However, the former Dubs midfielder isn’t getting carried away when it comes to his own county either.
“Cork’s biggest challenge is psychological,” Whelan said. “Every time expectation rises they seem to let you down and I think there are definitely problems around the middle of the park, and Dublin exposed that.
“The Dublin performance, it’s very easy to get carried away with the performance. They were a little bit inconsistent throughout the league. Yes, they played at a good intensity level and put Cork on the back-foot and pressurised them a lot, but Dublin are in the exact same position as they were last year going into the championship.
“We still don’t know whether we’ve learned the lessons from last year and that’s the biggest challenge, but in terms of contenders, you’ve got to feel that Dublin and Kerry are probably a touch ahead of the rest and maybe there are still questions to be answered in terms of where Donegal and Mayo are at.”
One of Whelan’s concerns for Dublin is that they might not encounter a significant challenge until August. Jim Gavin’s men are expected to cruise to their fifth successive Leinster title in July. Their provincial championship defence will begin against Longford or Offaly on 31 May.
“You look ahead to the next couple of months and the provincial games, and it’s gone stale. Every year the back door drains a bit more life from the provincial championships.
“Dublin are in a very dominant position in Leinster. You look at last year, Meath were competitive two years ago but last year was 3-20 to 1-10, so they’ve a long road to come back to compete with Dublin.
So, yes, the problem for Dublin is that they may not get a serious test and that’s not being disrespectful to the others, but they may not get a serious test until the August bank holiday weekend.”
Whelan added: “There’s a significant gap between some of the [Leinster] counties and Dublin and it’s a little bit unfair on some of the weaker counties to put them in that position coming to Croke Park. The days of coming to Croke Park and believing that you’re going to beat Dublin and get an extra 10/20% out of the performance are gone.
“Some teams now come to Croke Park with an element of fear. If Dublin get a fast start it can be demoralising. I don’t think there’s any benefit in that. I don’t think it helps the progression for the weaker counties.
“You’ve got to look at the weaker counties and say are their best players playing? Are they committed for a longer period of time? Who wants to come to Croke Park and take a thumping?”
Dublin came up short in last year’s All-Ireland semi-final when they were stifled by Donegal. Did Whelan see anything during the league to suggest that the Dubs may have learned how to cope with similarly defensive teams?
Whelan: “Well, I suppose if you look at Tyrone and the Derry game where they kind of struggled, they had obviously talked a lot about the blanket defence and they ran into a few brick walls. It took them a while to break it down.
“That is an area, there’s no doubt they’ve paid more attention to their defensive game but they played against Cork the very same way they played against Donegal. James McCarthy pushed right up, Philly McMahon pushed right up and as much as Cian O’Sullivan was conscious of dropping back deeper, he didn’t play as a sweeper. But there was still space at the back.
“They knew, they cut their cloth knowing that Cork didn’t have the strength through the middle of the park to get at Dublin and cause them problems, but they actually implemented the exact same game plan as they did against Donegal when they got burned badly.
“I think it’s about, look, Eamonn Fitzmaurice [Kerry manager], he can adapt to the opposition and he can implement a different game plan. Dublin have to be able to do that when the time arises.
“We’ll only learn that when the test is put up to them. On the evidence of the early part of the league, they struggled. And listen, maybe they’re working on it in the background and they’re comfortable, and when that challenge comes they’ll know what to do, but to win All-Irelands you’ve got to be able to adapt and have alternative game plans.”
Ciarán Whelan and Aogán Ó Fearghail were speaking at the launch of RTÉ’s 2015 GAA Championship coverage. RTÉ will broadcast 31 live games in HD across the summer, including all six provincial finals, four All-Ireland Senior quarter-finals, plus All-Ireland Senior semi-finals and finals in both hurling and football.
– First published at 07.00
