St Vincent's opener could provide hint as to future of Diarmuid Connolly

St Vincent’s will begin the defence of their Dublin senior club football title on Thursday evening – the big question being with or without Diarmuid Connolly?

Their 2017 winning captain agreed to “take a rest” during the latter rounds of Dublin’s latest Allianz Football League title success: Connolly’s appearance or otherwise in Parnell Park this evening could provide some answers about his immediate playing future – or indeed the longer term.

It’s understood Connolly hasn’t been training with his club either. The 30-year-old was central to St Vincent’s winning a third successful title last October, scoring the decisive goal in the 1-8 to 0-8 win over Ballymun Kickhams. It is however, uncertain whether Connolly will play this evening’s opening round game against Skerries Harps (6.45), as St Vincent’s look to make it four in a row.

It’s one of eight games down for decision this weekend, part of a double-header with the clash of Na Fianna and Lucan Sarsfields (8.15). Connolly was by some distance the club’s most influential player last season, before Wicklow champions Rathnew shocked them in the Leinster championship, on the second Sunday in November.

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Since then Connolly’s playing time with Dublin was limited to the second half appearance against Mayo in round four of the league in Castlebar, at the end of February, introduced on 44 minutes as a replacement for Michael Darragh Macauley.

Omitted

He was omitted completely from the 26-man panel for the following round game against Kerry, and following Dublin’s football league title win over Galway on April 1st, manager Jim Gavin simply confirmed he and Connolly agreed it would be better to “take a rest” from football.

“His status at the moment is that both Diarmuid and I agreed that what was best was that he would take a rest over these games,” Gavin said about the five-time All Ireland winner. “He has had a long number of years playing senior inter-county football, as have a lot of this group, so that decision was made in his best interests.”

When asked might Connolly be back for the championship, Gavin replied: “Please God”. His absence this evening might be telling on that one.

Fellow Dublin forward Ciarán Kilkenny was this week asked about Connolly’s potential return, and admitted some doubt: “I’m not too sure on that one now,” said Kilkenny. “I know he’s just taking a rest now at the moment. But obviously Diarmuid is a serious talent and has been a serious footballer for Dublin over the last number of years, and he’d be a serious addition for the team. But all we can really do now at the moment, as a group, is just do the best we can at the moment with the players that we have available to us”

Connolly’s entire 2017 season with Dublin, league and championship, totalled just over 200 minutes: he played the full game against Carlow in the Leinster quarter-final, that game resulting in a three-month ban for an incident with the sideline official.

That ban expired in time for Tyrone in the All-Ireland semi-final, yet Connolly only appeared in the 70th minute as the last of the six substitutes. He didn’t start the All-Ireland final against Mayo either, but did come on at half-time to help swing the game back in Dublin’s favour.

Since then he’s been absent from a number of Dublin’s All-Ireland winning presentations, and also skipped the team holiday to South Africa, all of which begs another question: how much more rest does he need?