Not long into the latest discourse on the continuous motivation of Dublin football, Jim Gavin turns the subject on himself. It doesn’t fully explain it, but at least part of the secret is to act like nothing whatsoever has been won.
Even if in his now sixth season of Sundays as manager, Gavin has contested 16 major trophies – between the league, the Leinster Championship and the All-Ireland – and won 14 of them.
That’s five Leinster titles and four All-Ireland titles before last month’s win over Galway at Croke Park brought him his fifth league title with Dublin in those six years. His only two defeats came in last year’s league final to Kerry and in the 2014 All-Ireland semi-final to Donegal.
“I’m as motivated as I ever was for the team,” he says. “That was always the motivation, to do my best for those guys. As long as I have the energy, I’ll keep doing it.
“Obviously winning is part of that. But it’s about doing their best, and everything else kind of follows from that. You are just trying to add a bit, within that window, trying to do our best for the county.
“Because at some stage players and management and backroom staff will all move on, and while we have the time it is a privilege and an opportunity to do your very best at any particular moment.”
That moment begins again when Dublin face the winners of Offaly and Wicklow on May 27th.
Delaney Cup
Gavin politely answered every conceivable question at the launch of the 2018 Leinster Football Championship at Trim Castle in Co Meath, without mentioning, or even contemplating, a fourth successive All-Ireland. “There’s a trophy up above, the Delaney Cup. I don’t see any name written beside the 2018 winners. It’s blank. This Dublin team is not really interested in the past. What they’re interested in really is the present, and their focus is the standard the players have set for themselves, and the ultimately demand that we do not look beyond Wicklow and Offaly.
“That’s just the culture that is there. They have no interest in talking about anything else other than that game on May 27th. And that’s where their narrow focus is.
“And parallel with that, and the values and culture they have, is to represent Dublin as best they can. If they can win bits of tin along that journey, that will be a bonus.
“But I think when they look back on their careers, if we’ve done our job as coaches, they’ll look back at great times, great fun they’ve had, great memories, of football, and friendships they will have forged for life.
“That’s probably their great driver, and there’s great bond there that we’ve spoken about before, that sense of loyal to each other. That no one player is bigger than the team.
Biggest strength
“Yes, they all want to play for Dublin, but ultimately they all want Dublin and the team to do well, and that’s been their biggest strength. Because we know how resilient and mentally strong that they are, and that’s come from the bond, to do their best for Dublin no matter what the score is.”
This time last year Dublin agreed a two-year extension on Gavin’s term as manager, seeing him through to the end of 2019, although Gavin does not necessarily put a timeframe on it.
“I don’t have any plan in that regard. At the end of each year I will review it with the county board, and see, one, do they want me, and then if I have the energy for it. Do I have the space in my calendar to do it and if they are happy with it, we will do it. There is no long-term strategy, no three-year plan that other counties might have.
“Sometimes in Dublin you are not afforded that luxury. It is all about the here and now, what you can do with the team right now. For me it is all about getting those boys to be their best, and if I can get them to be their best against Wicklow or Offaly.”
Gavin also addressed the usual suspects: Dublin being split in two for football purposes (“there’s only one Dublin, that’s never going to change”), and that occasionally cynical element of the game “if you’re winning at all costs then you’re going to be cheating” (“we certainly wouldn’t tolerate that”).
‘Very close’
Some injury updates too. Paul Flynn played with his club at the weekend, and is on course to play some part this summer: Jack McCaffrey and Cian O’Sullivan are “very close”.
Bernard Brogan is also “on track” to play some football this summer “whether that’s in a Dublin jersey this year I don’t know, because I don’t know what journey we’ll be on or where it will end”).
And Gavin was unanimous in his support for the April club window, releasing all his players following the league final win over Galway on April 1st, and only resuming collective training this week.
“From my perspective, from Dublin GAA’s perspective, it worked out really well. Players have come back really in tip-top condition, just getting back this week you can see the energy levels are really high. Their enthusiasm to get back and compete for a county jersey has never been higher, and a lot of that is down to the time they had away from us.”
