IT IS AN advantage but Pat Gilroy is not going to apologise for having it.
His Dublin senior footballers are accustomed to plying their trade in Croke Park, a trend that was brought into sharp focus earlier this week by Wexford defender Aindreas Doyle who questioned whether it was an unfair benefit for the reigning All-Ireland champions.
Yet when Gilroy speaks of what a great stadium it is to play football in, there is a sense that he finds it hard to fathom what all the fuss is about.
“If you look at last year we lost one game and that was in Croke Park. We won all our games that were away from home last year. It’s where all the big games are played. Most other counties that you hear from are delighted to get some games at Croke Park.Playing there more often has to be a positive for us but I think it’s a great place to play football. Is it an advantage? It’s not our decision to put all those games there so if it is an advantage we’ll take it.
“If it is going to be a crowd of over 20,000 well it makes sense for it to be there. For the league matches in particular it’s a real positive for us that younger guys get a taster of Croke Park and the big game pressure. The league matches in particular are very positive for us. I think it’s positive then for the Association to have a bit of profile during that time when there’s not a lot going on.
“We could look at it another way and feel sorry that we never get home advantage. We’re not allowed play in Parnell Park any more. We have to put up with the hassle of playing in Croke Park. You could look at it that way that we’re being used by the Association to make money. I think it makes sense to have the games there if you’re going to have a decent crowd.”
Dublin’s next outing at headquarters is looming large on Sunday afternoon when they face Wexford in the Leinster semi-final. Jason Ryan’s squad have proven sticky opponents over the last few years in their meetings with Dublin, in particular in last July’s Leinster final.
“They had a good plan to contain certain aspects of our game,” recalls Gilroy. “We kind of played into that a fair bit in the first-half. We didn’t provided options for Bernard (Brogan) particularly who was getting bottled up a fair bit. I think we got a bit of fortune in the second-half.
“But Wexford are very good, their plan against us over the last number of years has been smart. They’re also very well conditioned. I think that’s maybe a difference with them and other teams we’re playing maybe in Division 3. They physically are at the right standard, particularly from a strength perspective so they don’t fall away. They’re well able to muscle and harry.
“I think that’s a key attribute that they have and then they have good scoring forwards so any one of their six can get scores for you. They’re always going to present a really difficult challenge, not just for us, but you just look at their performance against Cork in the Championship a couple of years ago, they really put it up to the big teams.”
In a supreme performance against Louth in the opening round, it was difficult to pick holes in Dublin’s performance. Yet any concerns that may have been expressed about their midfield showing are batted away by Gilroy.
“We thought winning 70 per cent of the kickouts meant we dominated that area, if that doesn’t mean you dominated the area we won’t worry about it too much. We deal with the facts of it, we won 70 per cent of the kickouts and we haven’t done that in a long time. Certainly the Louth midfielders got on the ball in loose play, maybe our midfielders were doing other jobs at the time.
“But we would have been very happy in terms of our performance in terms of our kickouts and their kickouts, on their kickout I think it was our best performance in two years so in that respect it was an area we saw as a real positive on the day.”
