ALL-IRELAND SFC:WE DON'T mean to be raking up the fact that Ciarán Whelan's 14-season career at the heart of Dublin's midfield failed to deliver a Celtic Cross but it serves a purpose this week.

Whelan was a fixture in the team from 1996 – winning six Leinster titles and two All Stars (1999 and 2007) but, alas, no All-Ireland medal – the season after Dublin ended a 12-year wait to capture Sam Maguire, making him well placed to look at the recent disappointing national league campaign and pass judgement on the road ahead.

Hangover or not, the Dublin machine cranks back into life against Louth at Croke Park this Sunday.

Whelan is not expecting a repeat of 1996 when Meath took the most revered piece of silverware over the north county borderline but nor can he see it being retained.

There are significant differences from then to now.

Firstly, Dr Pat O’Neill stepped down as manager, to be replaced by Mickey Whelan, who ironically took his leave of Pat Gilroy’s management last September.

Then there is Gilroy himself, who was a member of the Dublin panel back in the nineties, and would have witnessed players passing Sam around the car park when Mickey Whelan was trying to concentrate the collective mindset.

“If you go back to ’96 there was a change of dynamic in that there was a new manager,” said Whelan yesterday. “That was the most important thing from Dublin’s perspective – if Pat Gilroy had stepped down before the start of this year I don’t think Dublin would be competing at all because the natural reaction with players after a change of manager, when they have had success, is to pick holes.

“No matter who had come in, if performances weren’t right during the league they would have compared it to previous set-ups, so continuity was important.”

Whelan, aged just 19, was an on-field witness to the last All-Ireland-winning Dublin team’s demise.

“In ’96 we beat Westmeath in Navan and then Louth probably should have beaten us – Joe McNally bailed us out with a goal in the end.

“A lot of the celebrations were still ongoing; Sam Maguire was still being passed around in the car park. You could see there was still a hangover from the previous year.

“Pat Gilroy, remember, was in that team and he would have experienced the pitfalls of the following year so all of that stuff was nipped in the bud early this year.”

One imagines the hammering inflicted up in Mayo during the league would have been enough of a fright but Whelan believes we won’t know if the same mental strength of 2011 exists until the team is embroiled in a do-or-die encounter.

From now until then, the focus can only be about getting the All-Ireland winning personnel back on the field of play. Namely the Brogans.

“I think that’s Dublin’s biggest challenge. They can’t just turn up and perform to the levels of last year. That’s why this Sunday’s game is important; you’ve got Bernard without game time, Alan hasn’t been that involved in the league, Barry Cahill is still to come back, O’Gara picked up an injury, Denis Bastick is only coming back, Mick Fitzsimons has been out. Kevin Nolan hasn’t had much game time.

“You know, if you break down the All-Ireland team there are seven or eight of them that hasn’t played much league football.

“In fairness to Gilroy he won’t hesitate in making changes, bringing new fellas in to freshen things up. Certainly, he won’t stay loyal to the 15 that delivered last year.”

In the same breath he doesn’t feel the All-Ireland winning under-21 contingent will see much game time this summer (“well, maybe Ciarán Kilkenny”) but their influx of energy and desire could prove important.

“It makes the intensity of the training games, that drove them on and were so critical last year, so important again.

“Whether they will get the breaks and the bit of luck they got last year to go all the way is questionable. There is going to be a lot of hunger from other teams out there.”

Whelan mentions Kerry and Cork’s performance in the league final. “The natural instinct in players is to lack that bit of hunger and desire that got them over the line.

“In the last five minutes of the All-Ireland final you saw the forwards chasing down their men, working hard and putting Kerry under pressure.

“It’s whether the players will have the desire to do that coming down the stretch of a championship match.

“History shows it is very difficult to defend the title. I still think it will take a very good team to beat them but whether they will retain it, I’m not so sure.”