Shortly after the 2023 All-Ireland senior football final, when Croke Park had emptied, James McCarthy, Dean Rock and Michael Fitzsimons stood in the middle of the pitch.
Only a squadron of seagulls loitered overhead, squawking and screeching as they patrolled the stadium looking for whatever scraps remained scattered among the seats. Kerry had just been discarded by Dublin, after a lifetime of two years the Dubs were All-Ireland champions again.
The three veteran Dublin players embraced, they smiled, they chatted. They stayed a while. In the moment, it felt like an ending. But it proved to be so for only Rock.
McCarthy would go on for one more season. His midfield partner Brian Fenton, it turned out, was on a farewell lap in 2024 also. Only none of us knew. So what now for Fitzsimons? What now for Dublin?
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There is much speculation that several other senior players will follow McCarthy and Fenton out the door over the coming weeks, with doubts in particular over Fitzsimons, Paul Mannion, Jack McCaffrey, John Small and Stephen Cluxton.
Cluxton, at 42 and having already returned to the squad in 2023, would seem the most likely to retire. But given his individualistic strength of character, who would be surprised if he bucked the trend and remained on for another season or five?
Still, if that quintet joined McCarthy and Fenton in the soft seats for 2025 it would see Dublin lose seven players from the team that started this year’s All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Galway. And many of those form the spine of the team.
It is not inconceivable they could lose their goalkeeper, full back, centre back and two midfielders. For the Dublin management that would not be a sand-down-the-door-frame job, that’s a get-the-scaffolding-up full rebuild. New load-bearing walls required; help needed.
Of course, such a blue exodus might not materialise but it seems while Fenton is the latest, and probably most surprising exit, he won’t be the last to go.
There has been a narrative in the wake of these retirements that Dublin are in danger of falling back to the chasing pack, but they had drifted towards that crowded field already.
In the 2024 championship they beat Meath (a Division Two team), Offaly (Division Three), Louth (Division Two), Cavan (Division Two), and Roscommon (relegated from Division One), drew with Mayo (Division One), and lost to Galway (Division One).
Dublin’s 2011 breakthrough team of Cluxton, Bernard Brogan, Alan Brogan, Bryan Cullen and Diarmuid Connolly ushered in a glorious era for the capital’s footballers.
McCarthy and Fitzsimons were also part of that 2011 crew but by the time Dublin started to build up momentum towards an unprecedented six-in-a-row, from 2015-2020, the central pillars had become players like Fenton, Kilkenny, McCaffrey, Cian O’Sullivan and Jonny Cooper. There was a natural evolution of the team during that period.
Fitzsimons (35) is currently focused on trying to help Cuala qualify for a first Leinster club SFC final – they face Tullamore on Saturday night. He made his Dublin senior debut in 2010.
“Once the club season comes around you’re just focusing on that. I haven’t thought about it since the Galway game,” he replied recently when asked about playing for Dublin in 2025.
Like Fenton, Small is only 31 but has accumulated a vast amount of silverware in his 10 years – including seven All-Ireland senior titles. The Ballymun man has been a consistent, strong-tackling, hard-working defender, bringing steel to Dublin’s rearguard.
As for McCaffrey (31) and Mannion (31), the brilliantly talented duo returned ahead of the 2023 season – their comeback billed by some as the old band getting back together for one final headline tour.
It was a narrative Dublin never cared much for, and both players returned again in 2024. It is believed Davy Byrne will be available for Dublin in 2025 after taking a year out, but he could be entering a very different dressingroom.
As for Fenton, his exit leaves a hole Dublin will struggle to fill. He was an All-Star nominee this season. Still in his prime.
That Galway defeat was only his third championship loss in 10 years – the previous two coming against Mayo in 2021 and Kerry in 2022. He didn’t lose a championship game in the first six years of his Dublin career.
He walks away having never lost a game in the Leinster SFC. Across the Dublin border, these departures will not have gone unnoticed.
Robbie Brennan in Meath and Brian Flanagan in Kildare might already be the luckiest managers their respective counties have had in over a decade. Timing is everything.
It is also true that the time comes for every player to step away. Few would have felt now was Fenton’s time, though. Either way all that matters is that he does.
Players must have the desire and hunger to play intercounty football, and their bodies must allow them to stay on that journey too. The commitment is colossal. What happens when you have won everything there is to win, proven everything you have to prove?
It was a privilege for us to see both Fenton and McCarthy in their pomp. Equally, there is sadness in the realisation we won’t get to see the Hill bounce to the beat of their brilliance again.
The Dublin team of 2025 will be a much different animal than it was in 2024. Just how different will become evident over the coming weeks. Fenton is the latest, he won’t be the last.
That thing about bands getting back together, those headline shows eventually stop. The songs endure though, the music and memories live forever. Dublin in the rare ould times, it might not be as far back as you think.
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