“I don’t think I could accurately comment on St Vincent’s way of playing football without talking about Kevin Heffernan,” says Brian Mullins, and by that, it turns out, he’s also talking about Dublin’s way of playing football.
Because they remain deeply intertwined, according to Mullins, who was assessing Dublin's current run of form with that of his club, St Vincent's, ahead of their All-Ireland final on St Patrick's Day. For Mullins, the four-time All-Ireland winner with Dublin, both of the teams' recent paths can still be traced back to the Heffernan era.
His death
"His impact on the club, from the late 1940s until he died, and even now, after his death, is significant," says Mullins, who played under Heffernan during his long reign as Dublin manager, and remained a close friend until his death in January of last year, aged 83.
“That style of football is the same as in other successful clubs or counties. It’s tough, and it’s based on being fit and skilful in all the elements of the game that are needed for a team to win.
“That’s been the tradition of this club, from the time it started making an impact on Dublin football, in the 1940s, and those elements of play and lessons haven’t changed.
“You can also describe that as attitude. Kevin had a very, very simple mentoring philosophy, which was based around the fact you don’t get anything easy in life. If you want to achieve, it’s about how much effort you put in, and that’s across the board. And in match circumstances, that’s having people on the pitch who decide they are going to make something happen, not wait for somebody else to do it. It’s what you witness . . the way players get into a game, the energy they show, the momentum, the drive, that their opponents don’t show.
“I know any team Kevin played with, or was involved with, he succeeded in motivating everybody to give of their best . . . And I’m sure Jim Gavin and others who’ve managed Dublin would look on that as being something they are inclined to try and get energy and motivation out of.”
There was one unmistakable sign of that during Dublin’s All-Ireland victory over Mayo last September, when a large portrait of Heffernan was raised over Hill 16. Now, St Vincent’s will look to pay further tribute by securing another All-Ireland club title on Monday week, when they face Castlebar Mitchels – six years after their last triumph, in 2008.
Mullins is sure that Heffernan remains an inspiration.
His legacy
"His gravitas, his memory, his legacy is very much around the club, all the time. The name Kevin Heffernan was always synonymous with performance, and we hope the youngsters on the panel have inherited that. That's my job (as director of football at St Vincent's), that's our manager Tommy Conroy's job, and that's all the underage mentors' job, to infuse them with that attitude, that mentality, that legacy of Kevin."
Mullins sees some of that legacy still spilling over in Dublin’s way of playing football: “I think the comparison is justified, in some ways, but in another way the current team have their own history to make. They will always be compared with the past. When you think about the 1970s, we lost All-Irelands and won All-Irelands, so we had it both ways. The current team have lost All-Irelands and won All-Irelands as well . . . .”
But, will this current reign – of both club and county – ever eclipse the Heffernan era?
“Ah, they’ll never do that,” says Mullins.
