DONEGAL COME TO Croke Park next Saturday night and their arrival will predictably stir up memories amongst Dublin’s football fraternity of where it all went wrong last August.
Dublin had sailed serenely in their Sam Maguire defence last summer until the All-Ireland semi-final when Donegal capsized them.
The defeat hurt and Paul Flynn, one of the Dublin players who did shine in that game, has likened the pain of the aftermath to ‘a bereavement’.
“It was a low couple of days. There was a period when I lost a game like that you’d leave the country or put the head down for a couple of weeks but you just can’t do that anymore. You have to try and face it.
“In many ways, it’s horrible to say, but it’s like a bereavement. If there is a bereavement in the family the people you want to be around are your family. In a case like that the only people you want to be around are your teammates because they are the only people who really know how you feel.
“So the days afterwards, it’s always good just to meet up with the guys, have a few drinks and reflect on it or not reflect on it, whatever it may be.”
Blame
Dublin manager Jim Gavin may have helds his hands up to accept blame after that defeat yet Flynn feels the players are also culpable.
“I didn’t know that, first of all. I don’t know how to take that. There are 15 or 20 guys out there on the pitch.
“And if we’re getting opened up ourselves, we have to see it and change it and adapt. We might have a game plan going out on the pitch, but we don’t fully follow it to every letter of the law.
Flynn won’t be in action for Saturday night’s showdown as recovery from groin surgery means he’s still out of action.
“I’m back now at the running stage for three weeks. We’ve a game the first and second weekends of March so they’re the target at the moment. Before the Monaghan game last year, the Thursday night before, I did a little bit of extra kicking and it just aggravated it, it’s one of those injuries that you can play on if you warm it up.
“We tried rehab programmes first for six weeks before Christmas but it wasn’t getting much better, so Jan 5 I went in to Gerry McEntee and got the job done.”
– First published 23.30, 2 Feb
**********
Dublin’s Paul Flynn was in Dublin today to announce further details of Setanta Sports’ coverage of the 2015 Allianz Leagues. Throughout the course of the competition, Setanta Sports will broadcast 17 exclusively live games (12 football and five hurling).
This weekend Donegal will travel to Croke Park to face Dublin in a re-match of last year’s epic All-Ireland semi-final, a match which is live on Setanta Sports 1, February 7th at 7pm. For more see www.setanta.com
