Dean Rock ready to inspire Ballymun Kickhams in All-Ireland club final

Fortunately for Rock and his club he’s lived up to the billing too – scoring 23 points in their last four games since Ballymun emerged as Dublin champions for the first time since 1985, when, not coincidentally, his father also played a starring role. And having just turned 23, it may only be a matter of time before he also emulates his father’s success with Dublin, an All-Ireland winner in 1983, and three-time All Star.

Although it would be unfair to suggest that Ballymun’s success has been built solely on Rock, or indeed their equally prolific forward Ted Furman, scorer of 3-4, because it's their defence that has ultimately set them apart this season: they’ve now gone seven games without conceding a goal, perhaps most tellingly of all in last month’s All-Ireland semi-final win over Dr Crokes, the Kerry champions actually missing from the penalty spot as well, when Seán Currie pulled off a crucial save from Chris Brady.

Unbreakable
It's this virtually unbreakable defence that may prove the difference in Sunday's showdown against Connacht champions St Brigid's, who like Ballymun are also seeking a first All-Ireland club title, yet do have the advantage of playing in a final before, losing out two years ago to the mighty Crossmaglen.

Ballymun manager Paul Curran has been emphasising this all along, repeatedly paying tribute to the strength of his defenders, which includes the likes of Eoin and Enda Dolan, and Alan Hubbard. Curran also made a key switch ahead of the meeting with Dr Crokes, recalling Sean George to full back (who had been suspended), and moving key defender Philly McMahon to midfield, where he made an equally influential impact alongside fellow Dublin panellist James McCarthy.

If these defenders hold up as strongly in Croke Park on Sunday then Ballymun may well become the fourth Dublin club to claim All-Ireland glory, after UCD, St Vincent's, and Kilmacud Crokes – who have won six titles between them.

Still, Ballymun will ultimately need to score more than their Roscommon opponents, which is where Rock comes in: he agrees their defence has in fact been the rock on which their progress to Croke Park has been built, and that this overall work ethic runs through the team.

“It’s a team effort, for sure, the complete effort,” says Rock. “I think we have a system we play to, where everyone works as hard, pressurises the man on the ball, and that always makes it hard for the opposition to score. But you’ve seen how good our defence is, from Seán Currie in goal, all the way up, we’ve a very good record.

'Build on that'
"I think we've matured as a team as well. We weren't just content with winning the Dublin championship. We wanted to build on that. Paul Curran was there with Thomas Davis for years. He knew what it would take.

“So we sat down three or four days after the Dublin championship, set out goals, what we wanted to achieve. We’ve got a group of very determined fellas, guys who want to achieve and win medals. This is the time, this is our moment at the minute, so we have to try and take advantage of it.

“Then after winning Leinster, it could have been easy to get ahead of ourselves, get carried away over Christmas. Instead, we were told to rest for four weeks, and in fairness all the lads did that. When we came back in January then we had a nice base from the previous year to work off and we just topped that up.

“Paul really stressed it, that everyone had to take their four weeks. We’d been going for 12 months as a club. That was the first break we’d had. We had a break in the summer for two weeks, but we really needed this one to really recharge the batteries, soak it all in, what we had achieved so far and then what we wanted to achieve after Christmas.

"I think the four week break has been the main reason why we are still here, now."

Underage system
Ballymun's reinvention in recent years has already been well-documented, build on an underage system that carefully nurtured players up through the various ranks – and which Rock was part of. For him, it began at under-six, where his father, inevitably, took him down to the club.

“Yeah, there was only ever going to be one club for me,” he says, even though the family residence is in Garristown, in north county Dublin. And with a name like Rock he was never going to require any further introduction.

“Sure it’s just been a bit of fun, really. Of course there was a little bit of extra pressure there growing up, everyone saying ‘that’s Barney’s son’, but then you just grow out of that, once you get into your teens.

“I think you just grow into your own player. So it’s never been a problem for me. It actually helped get me into Croke Park a couple of times.

“Dad was still into his 40s, with Garristown, when I was eight or nine. I’ve seen the videos too.

“He’s not too shy to stick them on, tell me how it should be done. I’ve seen his 1983 goal quite a few times. He'd a great career, and certainly a good example for me.”