Throughout the league when Dublin were veering towards and then ended up relegated from Division One football the one thing Dessie Farrell was consistent about was this thing about his team building towards bigger goals come the summer.
It’s not yet June, only now we know exactly where Dublin are at – the goal it seems of winning back the All-Ireland there for the taking, five first-half goals ample evidence of that for now.
Farrell didn’t miss the chance to look back: “I’ve spoken before about the disappointment of our national league campaign,” he said after Saturday’s 14-point win over Kildare in the Leinster football final. “How humbling that was, and it was very much topsy turvy, up and down in terms of the consistency of performance. It’s great to see the application and consistency to this point in time. We do realise, of course, there’s much stiffer tests ahead.
Farrell said Con O’Callaghan was also one of Dublin’s missing ingredients during the league: he scored 1-5 on Saturday, contributing just as much again.
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“Yeah, he was very good,” said Farrell. “I was very happy with how our forwards performed and gelled together, and put some nice moves together. But Con is important in that regard for sure. It’s trying to be more efficient. That’s one element for sure. There’s other things that we’ve been working on. Some going reasonably well, others maybe not so well. But it’s still a work in progress. I can guarantee you that.”
The Kildare work in progress has unquestionably regressed, manager Glenn Ryan solemn and somewhat sad in the reflection of his team’s performance. Ben McCormack was chief among those to keep their spirit alive throughout the game, finishing with 0-5, Jimmy Hyland patiently waiting his only goal chance midway through the second half too.
“Dublin are very clinical and were very clinical,” said Ryan, “There was ‘’ it. When they got the opportunities they were very clinical and took them very well. It was a chastening experience I suppose. They absolutely went for the jugular and took it. We’re playing this game because we love playing Gaelic football. On days like this you don’t necessarily hate it, but you hate what comes along with it.
“We have an opportunity to redeem today and that’s important because I don’t believe what we saw in the first 35 minutes or indeed throughout the game is representative of this group of players. They have an opportunity to show people that today was a big bump in the road and whether we can learn from it. I’m sure these lads will.”
Daniel Flynn was held scoreless, three of the six starting forwards replaced, and Kildare perhaps safe in the knowledge that they’re probably aren’t this bad. The qualifiers will tell.
