DUBLIN ARE ON course for a swift return to Division 1 of the Allianz Football League, but a string of unconvincing wins place them in the spotlight.
Dessie Farrell’s side just about kept their 100% Division 2 record intact as they came from six points down to beat Clare by the minimum at Croke Park on Saturday night.
They do battle with high-flying Derry for table-topping supremacy at Celtic Park this weekend, both sides looking for their fifth win on the trot in a clash which should give us further insight into Dublin’s current state.
A rather different theme has emerged in Division 2 thus far. Their games are closer than expected — a nine-point win over basement side Limerick the one exception — and they’re continually looking to their old guard in the final quarter. Are Dublin finding life harder in the second tier?
They beat Kildare by two points on opening night at HQ, while they had to hold off a Cork fightback to triumph by the same margin on Leeside last weekend.
The Sky Blues were the ones on the comeback trail against Clare on Saturday night. Gavin Cooney’s 34th-minute goal was key as the Banner led 1-8 to 0-8 at half time, and Colm Collins’ side stretched the gap to six — 1-12 to 0-9 — by the 50th minute.
Jack McCaffrey’s introduction and first Croke Park appearance since the 2019 All-Ireland final replay brought one of the biggest cheers of the night during that worrying spell, the five-time All-Ireland winner and four-time All-Star one of several making impacts felt from the bench. Match-winner Cormac Costello, Niall Scully, Eoin Murchan and Colm Basquel were others, the Dubs’ experience shining through down the home straight.
It was McCaffrey who orchestrated the move up to Costello’s 74th-minute fisted winner, the Clontarf flier surging up-field and playing one-twos before setting the forward up for glory.
They looked dangerous on the counter-attack through the fightback, McCaffrey and co. bringing a renewed energy and impetus. Earlier in the game, their build-up play from a dropped forward line had often been slow and laborious, the emphasis on possession-based football, while they sporadically tried to play direct ball to Con O’Callaghan.
The one time it came off in the first half, O’Callaghan scored a goal into Hill 16 but the Cuala man was adjudged to committed a foul before catching Brian Fenton’s route-one pass. Seconds later, Clare executed a similar move perfectly as Cooney got the better of Lee Gannon and hammered home.
Dublin have only scored three goals — Cork have raised 10 green flags, Meath nine and Derry six — and their scoring difference is +13 as opposed to Derry’s +40 and Cork’s +31, as teams look to deny them space and block them out. They are evidently still doing that to others, with just 58 points conceded overall.
James McCarthy remains a lynchpin of the team, while Dean Rock’s 0-8 (5f, 1 ’45) was key on Saturday night. Rising duo Ross McGarry and Sean Lowry were catapulted into the Dublin forward line ahead of Costello and Scully before throw-in, but roles were reversed at the break.
“They are looking in the rear view mirror too much,” Sean Cavanagh told Allianz League Sunday last night. “They are reliant on Dean Rock, he has been a great servant but there are no new names coming through.
“It’s the same names – Craig Dias was on the bench last night. It almost feels as if they are looking back at the 2017 and 2018 [team]. Time moves on and I’m not totally sure Dublin are.”
That said, it is a results-based business and Dessie Farrell was more than happy to get over the line and secure two more valuable points against Clare.
They scored the last seven points of the game and held the Banner scoreless to finish up 0-16 to 1-12 winners, while there contrasting finishes against Cork and Kildare. In Páirc Uí Chaoimh, it was 0-14 to 2-8 in 54th minute, before Dublin won rest of game 0-4 to 0-2, while the Sky Blues side led Kildare by five with 20 minutes to go but were outscored by 0-6 to 0-2 in the closing stages. Saturday night’s comeback was pleasing for Farrell.
“The lads showed good character coming down the stretch there,” he said after the Clare win. “There’s always going to be problems and stuff to sort out, this thing is never linear.
“Making progress, you’re never on the one trajectory – if often can be one step forward, two steps back, but it’s in the steps back that you might get the most to learn and to take from it. Hopefully you’re able to frogleap back to where you were and maybe add a little bit too. That’s the nature of it, active learning for us and trying to take what we can from each performance and make the next one better.”
Their biggest task is the next one, Celtic Park hosting Saturday evening’s showdown against Derry, while they travel to Navan to face Meath on 18 March.
“We are where we wanted to be,” Farrell added. “We’ve been able to get some of the older crew back into the mix and give them time, and then there’s a lot of young fellas who have maybe come through a developmental journey to this point in time and hopefully we get to continue that over the next couple of games as well.
“There’s a couple of big games left and we need to be at the pitch of it.”
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