“I think 2020 is going to be a very, very interesting season and the big message that I wanted to convey to the lads is that we need to be on our guard, we need to be on our toes.”
-Dessie Farrell, 10 January 2020
WHEN DESSIE FARRELL uttered those prophetic words during his first press briefing in the AIG offices back in January, nobody could have predicted just how right he was going to be.
Even before Covid-19 rocked the planet, Farrell’s start to the Dublin gig was highly unusual.
The call from CEO John Costello to take the baton from Jim Gavin only arrived weeks earlier after the Round Towers club man’s unexpected departure. The late appointment on 12 December only added to the task of replacing the greatest manager Dubin had ever seen.
Dublin’s squad of self-driven and gifted high-achievers had just reached immortality. Nothing less than an All-Ireland would be acceptable for Farrell in his debut year at this level.
For the first few weeks of his reign, the All-Ireland winning squad were pitched up in Bali with Gavin and the 2019 management team on their team holiday. Farrell hastily arranged two trial games and selected a squad for the O’Byrne Cup.
Of the side that featured on that biting cold January afternoon in Longford, Cian Murphy, Tom Lahiff and Emmett Ó Conghaile remain part of his plans 11 months on.
The main crew returned for the Division 1 opener against Kerry, which Farrell had less than two weeks to prepare for with a full squad.
That bad-tempered tie finished level at 1-19 apiece, a game of exceedingly high quality given how little preparation time both teams had.
Dublin’s form lines in their five league games pre-shutdown fluctuated wildly. There was a convincing seven point win over Mayo in Castlebar, a draw with Monaghan, a late one-point win over Donegal and three point loss to Tyrone in an Omagh arm wrestle.
Farrell used 30 players in the pre-Covid league, with debuts handed out to Dan O’Brien of Kilmacud Crokes, Castleknock’s Eoin O’Brien and Na Fianna’s Aaron Byrne, while Craig Dias earned a surprise (and short-lived) recall after shining in a challenge match for Kilmacud against the Dubs.
Dublin’s innate ability to manage games down the stretch and keep their composure left them in mid-table when the pandemic hit. Many felt this group, with plenty of miles on the clock, would benefit mentally and physically from the six-month gap in the season.
On their return, they mixed the good with the bad in October wins over Meath and Galway. Realistically, it’ll be an All-Ireland semi-final against Ulster opposition before Dublin are truly tested.
Farrell had about nine weeks to work with his squad before everything was halted. The squad resumed collective training in mid-September, meaning he had 15 weeks in total to implement his stamp on the team.
Not a huge amount of time, but these are seasoned players and he was already extremely familiar with the group. Of the players that featured in last year’s replay win over Kerry, 13 were coached by the new boss between minor, U21, Na Fianna and development squads.
The Dublin team for their tilt at six-in-a-row will look much closer to the side left behind by Jim Gavin than if the season had transpired as normal and he was afforded the opportunity to blood more rookies.
But the production line in the capital is not churning out talent as it once was. Other Division outfits introduced fresh talent like Mark Moran in Mayo, Donegal’s Oisin Gallen, Conor McKenna of Tyrone or Tony Brosnan in Kerry.
Robbie McDaid and Cian Murphy are likely to be the only two newcomers into the starting team, while Eric Lowndes could continue in his new role at wing-forward.
Paddy Small looks set to nail down a starting spot at corner-forward, dislodging the injured Mannion from the side, while Sean Bugler’s continued development suggests he’s on the road to becoming a top class inter-county footballer.
Of course, Dublin have been hit by big retirements and lost a great deal of experience in the past year. Diarmuid Connolly and Jack McCaffrey were the headline departures as two players in the very elite bracket of the game.
Although Bernard Brogan, Eoghan O’Gara and Darren Daly were seeing reduced playing time under Gavin, their absence will be felt around the dressing room and on the training pitch.
Dublin under Farrell have not looked all that different to the later Gavin years. They still defend as a unit, counter-attack at blistering pace and have the patience and guile to slice open packed defences.
He’ll still be reliant on the older guard, with Stephen Cluxton, Michael Fitzsimons, James McCarthy, Jonny Cooper, Dean Rock, Cian O’Sullivan, Philly McMahon, Michael Darragh Macauley and Kevin McManamon remaining important members of the squad.
It’s still very much a player-led group. As divulged in Brogan’s autobiography, McManamon and Macauley even helped out with Dublin’s mental preparations last season.
Approaching their late 20s are the crew Farrell worked with at minor and U21/U20 grades, who have taken the mantle of on-field lieutenants: Brian Fenton, Con O’Callaghan, Ciaran Kilkenny, Brian Howard, John Small, Niall Scully, Davy Byrne and Paul Mannion, while Lowndes and Cormac Costello were also involved.
Farrell will pin his hopes on Murchan, another All-Ireland U21 winner, to inject the pace from the half-back line to fill the McCaffrey-shaped void.
One concern is around Cooper’s fitness after he limped off with what appeared to be an ankle injury in the penultimate round of the league. He didn’t feature against Galway, as Murphy, Fitzsimons and Byrne manned the full-back line.
It’s an area of the field that the recently retired Connolly voiced his concern for this week.
“My big question mark for Dublin this year will be in the full-back line,” he told BoyleSports. “Are they going to have a consistent full-back line? Because usually when we do, we can shore up the back and the lads up front will always get the scores.”
But the biggest question mark is how they’ll fare without the immensely talented backroom team Gavin had in place.
Jason Sherlock, Declan Darcy and (during the first lockdown) Paul Clarke all departed the set-up. Their considerable inter-county experience will be missed, even if Farrell brought the highly-rated Mick Galvin and Brian O’Regan on board.
The stand-out quote from Farrell’s introductory press conference arrived when he was asked about the risk of following in Gavin’s footsteps, where immediate success is not only expected but required.
“I’ve always taken the approach that there’s two ways to live your life,” he replied.
“One, as a timid soul. Sort of year by year, month by month, week by week, possibly even hour by hour as a timid soul. Or the other is to perhaps do the things that frighten you at times.
“This thing stimulates me. It challenges me. I love football, working with footballers. And, ultimately, now is the time that, if I didn’t do it now, it would probably never come around again.”
11 months after taking on “biggest gig in town” as Tommy Lyons once put it, Farrell leads his troops into Leinster quarter-final action against Westmeath in Portlaoise tomorrow night.
It’s been the most unusual start to his reign, but thankfully for Farrell the championship is finally here.
- Saturday: Dublin v Westmeath, O’Moore Park, 6.15pm [Sky Sports]
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