Is it really as easy as that? On a sunny Saturday last autumn, news emerged that Jack McCaffrey and Paul Mannion were returning to the intercounty fold. On Dubs TV, it wasn’t dramatically unveiled – Dublin manager Dessie Farrell’s drawling delivery is made for announcements like the train being three minutes late – but it was dramatic news.
Immediately the cogs in people’s brains whirred. Computation. Two All Stars coming back and a third in Con O’Callaghan, who was injured for last year’s defeat by Kerry, would surely overturn the one-point margin that separated the teams in the 2022 All-Ireland semi-final.
Then, it wasn’t even announced that Pat Gilroy, the pioneering 2011 All-Ireland-winning manager, who first splashed the colour on a blue-rinsed decade, was also reporting for duty. That news got through by osmosis.
Last March there was neither announcement nor osmosis. Stephen Cluxton just turned up. The 41-year-old former goalkeeper was initially there as ‘injury cover’ but before long, there he was back between the sticks, influencing matches and the dressing-room in the usual way.
Seán Moran: League’s championship promise may be clouding but it remains bright at the top
Malachy Clerkin: The GAA should make more of St Patrick’s Day - and more of its intercounty stars
Sports Review 2023: Mary Hannigan picks the best quotes from the sporting year
GAA happy that GAAGo has ‘bedded in well’ as 2024 season launches
Surely all of that, built by consensus to get ‘one more job done,’ the ascent of James McCarthy up the steps of the Hogan Stand to lift Sam again, this time in his own right as captain, had to be enough to beat Kerry and take their All-Ireland off them?
Then again, All-Irelands are no longer won in September. Paul Mannion had been injury prone. Jack we’re constantly told is a ‘free spirit’ and might be spirited elsewhere in the 10 months between the announcement and the All-Ireland.
It was Philly McMahon who dismissed the anxiety about Mannion, pointing out that an intercounty preseason would strengthen him and get him fit. McCaffrey was only glimpsed in flashing interludes. A friend said that on the player’s introduction to a league fixture in Cork, Jack looked like ‘a different species’ with his pace and ability to shift gears.
Yet that doesn’t come with guarantees for the hamstrings and at times he suffered long spells in dry dock.
It was a tribute to the Dublin S&C people that going into Sunday’s final, the team had a clean bill of health.
And there they were: Mannion, three years away from such occasions proving that big-match temperament can be reactivated, McCaffrey, four years away but still capable of spreading unease and anxiety in opponents when he gets on the ball, and Cluxton, completing all of his restarts. All of them. He also nailed a 45 and a free from a little farther out.
Those place kicks were executed with such confidence that they more or less bisected the posts. After the second one, he had turned away before the ball even dropped over the bar.
Those were serious performances but many Dublin players contributed. Michael Fitzsimons with his doggedness on David Clifford, Brian Fenton and his dominance in the final quarter as well as his influence throughout with 31 possessions – in the Gavin years, high numbers of Fenton possessions were regarded as a metric with almost ironclad links to winning matches.
Brian Howard, tirelessly available as a kick-out target, harvested nearly half of Cluxton’s restarts, 10 out of 23.
Hearing that Howard had come back to training a little later than everyone else because of his travels in southeast Asia, RTÉ co-commentator Eamonn Fitzmaurice commented: “The way he’s playing today, a lot of fellas will be heading to south-east Asia next January.”
So, how come there was just two points in it by the end? If Dublin had built in such significant improvements in the previous 12 months, should they not have been further ahead?
That’s simply the way of Dublin-Kerry fixtures. Their All-Ireland clashes since 2011 show how invariably well-contested the matches have been. Of the eight – five finals and three semi-finals – only two have been won by more than a score.
Dublin won the 2013 semi-final by seven but the match was level going into the 70th minute before the late goal rush. The final replay was probably the most emphatic victory but that was peak Dublin, winning the five-in-a-row, which nearly didn’t happen, as Kerry led going into injury-time in the drawn match.
In a way, Sunday’s finale was most reminiscent of the 2016 semi-final. Going into that match, Dublin were hot favourites as defending champions and they had handed Kerry a heavy defeat in that April’s league final.
Instead the match went all the way to the finish, helped by two goals before half-time, which changed the trajectory. It took points by Eoghan O’Gara and a Diarmuid Connolly special, curled off his left, to win by two.
The boot was on the other foot last year and that also appears to have had an impact. Losing in the championship to Kerry hadn’t happened for 13 years but a one-point defeat suggested that the new champions were well within reach.
It doesn’t seem likely that a team schooled in winning ways would cling too tightly to emotive prompts like getting back at Kerry or ensuring James McCarthy lifts the cup but whatever motivation existed made it easier to tighten the bolts on machinery that had become loose in recent years – as acknowledged by McCarthy himself.
Serial winners are frequently questioned about how they maintain the focus to keep winning. Only one starter on Sunday, Lee Gannon, came into the final with no All-Ireland medals and his team-mates had several, all the way up to Cluxton, McCarthy and Fitzsimons with eight, all of whom now have a record nine.
Yet it was widely remarked that they looked like a team winning their first. There’s footage on social media, for instance of McCaffrey buck lepping and roaring as McCarthy lifts Sam Maguire. It’s what he came back for and the relief and jubilation is clear.
It’s a cliché but focus on performance and outcomes follow whereas it doesn’t necessarily operate the other way around.
The future is not clear. Mood music and speculation suggest that there may be a significant exodus. Dean Rock alluded to it in a post-match interview. Cluxton was lingering on the pitch. McCarthy’s emotional response hinted that he wasn’t hoping to do it all again next year.
Fitzsimons has a busy medical career. There has been talk of Fenton going travelling while he has the chance. All such extraneous plans were put on hold with a view to Sunday’s achievement.
The frustration for Kerry is that having built up to the long-awaited win just over 12 months ago, they are back chasing and if indications prove correct there may soon be no-one left to chase except ghosts. It’s over.
