FOR THOSE teams caught between the start of the championship and their big day out there is only one refuge: the challenge match. Loved by some, loathed by others, the idea is to create some of the championship intensity but without getting too intense about it.
Dublin are one of the last teams to enter the football arena, their Leinster headline clash with Meath in Croke Park still over two weeks away. So manager Pat Gilroy has been busy filling in the dates in his diary; Dublin have played Monaghan and Armagh already this month; they were set to play Kerry last Sunday until the weather had its say; and they’ll play Mayo in Portmarnock tomorrow evening.
It’s something of a departure for Dublin, given Gilroy’s predecessor Paul Caffrey was more loathing than loving of the challenge match. The only problem is Dublin haven’t been winning. Monaghan and Armagh beat them, albeit narrowly, and this followed the defeat to Louth in another challenge last month.
But it’s all part of the bigger plan, and one Dublin player who believes challenge matches serve a valuable purpose is defender Bryan Cullen.
“It’s a new departure for us, definitely,” says Cullen. “But Pat is big on match practice. That’s the best way to prepare for the championship, by playing football. It is difficult to recreate competitive matches in training. So Pat’s going with the approach that the more games we play the sharper we’ll be come June 7th.
“There’s always the chance of injury, but then lads are just as likely to get injured in training as they are in a match. And you can’t wrap lads up in cotton wool. You have to test lads out.”
Gilroy does have plenty to work on, not least his starting 15. Dublin experimented during the league, but unlike recent years, there is a lot of uncertainty about the make-up of their championship team to play Meath on June 7th.
Tomorrow evening, for example, Cullen doesn’t start, while Ger Brennan is named at centre back, Ciarán Whelan and Darren Magee rejoin forces at midfield, while Ross McConnell is moved up to centre forward. While this may be a hint of things to come, Cullen admits the role of every Dublin player has changed somewhat under Gilroy.
“Pat has put out very different teams in a lot of the challenge games,” says Cullen, “mixed it up in training games as well. He’s really kept lads on their toes, even those automatic starters on the previous regime. But the great thing about Pat is that he’s really picking the team on form. That gives the whole panel confidence, that they all have a part to play.
“He encourages us to express ourselves more on the field. Paul Caffrey was on a more structured game plan. That got us very close, but just not over the line. Pat feels it’s that bit of spark, that bit of creativity, that Kerry always show in the last five or 10 minutes of a big game. He’s trying to bring that out in us.
“I would have been used to playing a holding centre-back role, a catch-and-kick role. But Pat would encourage me to join the attack a bit more. He’d encourage me and say I have two good feet. He’s been at me about that side of my game.”
The idea, ultimately, is that Dublin become a less predictable team of recent years – something which Cullen agrees has contributed to their downfall: “At times teams would have been able to put on a video of us and quickly establish our style of play. When it wasn’t working for us, we struggled to adapt. When our Plan A didn’t work, we struggled to come up with something else to turn a game in our favour.
“That’s what Pat is trying to improve on. He encourages us to play a bit more off the cuff. I suppose a team that plays off the cuff is very hard to analyse and prepare for.”
But it’s about being more “off the cuff” defensively as well, particularly as Dublin have let themselves down in that department in too many big games.
“You couldn’t argue with that,” says Cullen. “We leaked three goals against Tyrone last year. So we’ve certainly tried to tighten up in that department, but it’s not a style of play, or a strategy. It’s really just better decision making, identifying where the threat is, and getting bodies to it. That’s what Tyrone do to great effect.”
That’s the Tyrone, by the way, who loathe challenge matches.
DUBLIN (SF v Mayo): S Cluxton; D Henry, D Bastick, A Hubbard; P Griffin, G Brennan, B Cahill; C Whelan, D Magee; P Flynn, R McConnell, D Connolly; C Keaney, M Davoren, A Brogan.
