Mick Bohan comfortable with ‘underdogs’ tag as Dublin prepare for final test

Mick Bohan thought he was gone. Leaving Leitrim last July after Dublin lost an All-Ireland quarter-final to Donegal, there was a heavy sense it was the end. The Dublin manager didn’t say it, but he felt it.

Yet this Sunday, just over 12 months on, Bohan will manage Dublin against Kerry in the women’s All-Ireland senior football final at Croke Park. He’s not sure exactly when or how his mind changed, or at what juncture the road started to open up again. But here we are.

“I’d say driving away from that game last year I was gone, definitely,” says Bohan. “But sport is funny, I can’t even tell you at this point in time what turned it around.

“I do know as a management team that we felt we let ourselves down that day. And I don’t know whether it was still the ghost of the previous year, we certainly had Meath in the wing mirror, we had started to play some really good football.

O’Loughlin Gaels prevail as All-Ireland club semi-finals produce two of the year’s best games

---

Louise Ní Mhuircheartaigh, Leah Caffrey and Jennifer Dunne nominated for Player of the Year award

---

Hannah Tyrrell says All-Ireland victory fulfils a long-held dream

---

The Schemozzle: Eilish O’Dowd’s unusual backstory took her from Leitrim to Dublin success

---

“But Donegal, who we know obviously play a certain way, played incredibly defensively that day and we got shocking frustrated early doors in the game.

“And all of a sudden they found themselves with a foothold on the game. I don’t know whether it was the thought of not getting back to get an opportunity to play Meath and there was panic, which we wouldn’t have seen from them before. So that was a very frustrating day.”

Dublin had been the standard-bearers in the women’s game for several seasons, and they entered the 2021 All-Ireland final as strong favourites to beat Meath and claim a fifth successive title. But the Royals caused a massive upset that afternoon and Dublin have been chasing redemption ever since.

Despite the storied history between Dublin and Kerry, the counties have never met in a women’s All-Ireland senior football final. The sides played in the group stages of this year’s championship in June, with Kerry chalking up a 2-8 to 1-9 victory at Parnell Park.

And Bohan is happy to know Kerry enter Sunday’s decider as favourites.

“I would have said at the start of the year that our whole modus operandi was to make this thing competitive again,” he adds.

“If you’d asked me last November or December were we going to be in this position [preparing for an All-Ireland final], I’d have said no, it was just too much all in one go.

“So that in itself, being here, is an achievement. But I’m long enough around in knowing that the real achievement in getting to these days is making sure you perform.”

There have been significant changes to the Dublin panel over the last year, but the door can open both ways. A week after losing that round-robin game to Kerry, Dublin hammered Cavan, but the result was almost secondary.

Of far greater significance was the return of Sinéad Aherne for the first time all year after Bohan had coaxed the four-in-a-row winning captain back to the fold.

Over the years there have been some parallels between the journey of the Dublin men’s team and that of their female counterparts – and bringing back a multiple All-Ireland winning captain is another.

However, Bohan says it wasn’t an easy sell to convince Aherne to get tangled up in blue again.

“Sinéad was the big one, to try and bring her back in. What I saw early doors was that so much change had taken place.

“We were trying to get her back just to help us to coach the younger kids, which she has been fantastic in doing. But, as we knew, she has such a fantastic football brain and she has obviously now put herself in a position where she’s one of the crew who will take part on Sunday.

“It was much more than a phone call with Sinéad, there were several meetings. The type of person she is, it was not an easy decision for her.

“And even when she came back in, her whole concern was about not undermining the new leadership group that had taken over. That’s just typical of what she’s about, but she’s been huge. Just having her in the dressingroom, the small words with some of the kids, she’s been fantastic.”

Dublin’s aim now is to win the Brendan Martin Cup and have both senior All-Ireland football titles resting in the capital this winter. Kerry, who were beaten in the final by Meath last year, are chasing a first All-Ireland since 1993.

“From the start of the year I would have said Kerry are the best team in the competition,” says Bohan. “If we weren’t up against them, I’d be wishing them well.”

And then, with more than a small dollop of attempting to out-yerra the yerra masters, Bohan adds: “We know we are up against a team who were probably a little bit ahead of us from the point of view of where they are at with their squad.

“They are on their fifth year of development while we have a combined group, some of the older girls who are here for their seventh campaign or around that and obviously some of the new guns in for their first one.”

Dublin and Kerry – never not at it.

♦ The TG4 All-Ireland senior football final between Dublin and Kerry will take place at 4pm in Croke Park on Sunday, as part of a triple-header with the junior decider involving Down and Limerick at 11.45am, followed by the intermediate showdown of Clare and Kildare at 1.45pm. Tickets are €30 for adults and €15 for students, OAPs and under 18s.