“Greed,” says Denis Bastick, cutting straight to the chase. A month shy of his 35th birthday, the Dublin midfielder still has an insatiable appetite to win more, even though many people –and for a while even himself – were wondering if he’d play on after last year’s All-Ireland victory.
“It was a huge, huge decision for me,” admits Bastick, who was also in the unusual position of winning his three All-Irelands with Dublin while in his 30s. Success was a long time coming, and now it’s not easy to let it go of it.
“Time will tell whether it’s the right one [decision]. Obviously I sat down with the family, had discussions, sat down with Jim [Gavin] and made up my mind that we’re in a lucky position that we have a chance to do something special, so in that sense it was difficult to step away from that.
“Like, why do Kilkenny stay coming back and winning? It doesn’t get any less appealing to win an All-Ireland. That hunger, that’s always there. That stays there.
“It’s tough. It takes so much time, takes so much out of you. You don’t always get the reward you deserve so that’s the dangerous factor. You could be left empty-handed at the end of the year and that’s when it’ll be really telling.
“Maybe last year it was the right time, starting an All-Ireland final and winning, to step away.
“But for me at the moment I’m enjoying playing football, I’m enjoying playing on the team. Being involved in that group. It’s a special place. It’s a great place to be.”
Hungry
Sunday presents the chance to win a fourth successive Allianz Football League title, and while Kerry will be doing everything possible to make sure that doesn’t happen, Bastick finds himself as hungry now for much success than he’s ever been.
“My championship debut was at 28 and I won my first All-Ireland at 30. It’s different for me, my career was later on but it doesn’t make it any easier.
“For me, it was a case of, do I have something to contribute to the team? That was the biggest question for me. Can I add something? Can I add value to the team and the group? I felt I could and that’s why I’m still here.
“It does get harder and harder. It’s a tough place, the winter, you’re in the dark all the time and you’re in the bad weather, but you just pull each other along and get through it. But, definitely, it is harder the older you get.
“But I think the team plays a certain way and I can add to that. Midfield-wise, I don’t think I’ve changed. I suppose maybe I don’t go forward as much as I would with the club. But that’s what the team need me for, a certain type of role and that’s what I do there so I’m happy enough with that.
“But I’m going to be happy if I can look back at the end of this and say I’ve contributed or I’ve done well.”
Perception
Having beaten them in last year’s All-Ireland, there is a perception that Dublin have the upper hand on Kerry right now, although Bastick doesn’t see it that way.
“I think our confidence may have changed in our own ability. But we never underestimate Kerry. They are a great team, they’ve got great players so our perception definitely hasn’t changed. We don’t think we are better than them at any stage, we know that if we don’t play well we will lose and that’s a guaranteed factor.
“From our point of view, we have confidence from some of our wins and we bring that to the game but we don’t underestimate them at all.”
Nor is he making a big deal of Dublin’s now 21-game winning streak, between league and championship.
“If you look at it more clearly. It sounds fantastic okay, but we went to Longford in January and were beaten down there.
“If you look at some of our league games, we beat Monaghan by a late point at Croke Park, Roscommon had a free to level that game too, so while we are unbeaten, our performances, some of them, have not been up to a level that we would expect from ourselves.
“It is a great stat to have and can that stay going, who knows? But really it’s just about looking forward to Sunday and trying to get over that. It would be nice to continue it on.”
