Dessie Farrell had no mind to drag it out. Everyone who needed to know had been told at the start of the year: his sixth season in the job would be his last, come what may.
These days, the interior lives of intercounty panels are as guarded as an offshore account, but Farrell’s announcement didn’t come as a surprise. Dublin had spent a long, trying year swapping players in and out, desperately searching for a new design. In the end, though, they were the first Dublin team to lose three championship matches in the same season.
“I think it’s just come to a natural end,” said Farrell. “It’s easier to say it today than I have to say it next week or in a couple of weeks’ time. I definitely don’t want to make it about me because it’s always about the players. Ultimately, they’re the men who step into the arena.
“I have huge admiration and respect for them. I think the overriding feeling for me now is that I will miss the people. It’s not necessarily the position because some of the relationships are really important to me. Some of those lads have been like kids to me, watching them grow up.”
In the second half of Farrell’s reign he was tasked with managing a transition from Dublin’s greatest team to something smaller, built in its shadow. Kerry had been faced with the same problem in the 1980s and it took them over a decade to cross that bridge.
Of the team that completed the six-in-a-row in Farrell’s first season, eight of them started on Saturday. From the match day 26, just a dozen remained. Among the missing names, though, were some of Dublin’s greatest ever players.
“I think with all the retirements from last season and if the management team had stepped away as well, it didn’t feel like the right thing to do,” said Farrell. “I think everyone involved knew that this was going to be a different season.
“Some of the senior guys in that dressingroom to a man stood up and picked up the cudgel and just went with it. I know there’s challenges with underage in the county at the minute or over the last number of years, but there’s a great crop after coming in there and I’d be very optimistic for how they go about their business in the seasons ahead.”
More retirements will surely follow in the coming months. The site will soon be cleared.
