ALL-IRELAND SFC SEMI-FINAL CORK v DUBLIN:WHEN HIS team were booed off the field after their first-half performance against Wexford in the Leinster quarter-final, Pat Gilroy could never have imagined he'd be sitting before us now talking about Dublin being one game away from the All-Ireland final.
Actually, neither did we – and so after one of the great transformations of the summer, it’s back to Croke Park again on Sunday, only this time some Dublin supporters might be turned away, such is the demand for tickets.
It will be 10 weeks since Dublin struggled so horribly against Wexford, and while Gilroy hasn’t exactly reinvented his team, he has reinvented the team spirit.
Dublin will start Sunday’s semi-final against Cork with six changes from the team that started against Wexford, although there’s only one change from the win over Tyrone in the All-Ireland quarter-final: Cian O’Sullivan resumes his place in the half-back line, having missed out in recent weeks with a hamstring injury, with Barry Cahill dropping to the bench.
However, since that virtual collapse against Wexford, Kevin Nolan, Ger Brennan, Michael Dara Macauley, Alan Brogan, Bryan Cullen and Eoghan O’Gara have all nailed down starting places.
Gilroy, naturally, said there were “seven or eight other guys pushing hard” for a starting place, but O’Sullivan was deemed the only necessary switch: “He did well when he came on against Tyrone,” said the Dublin manager. “It took him a good while to recover from the hamstring injury, but he really is getting back into the form we know he is capable of. He has earned his recall.”
O’Sullivan’s recall, Gilroy claimed, wasn’t just to do with the nature of the opposition on Sunday, and Dublin’s need to beef up their half-back line to cope with Cork’s ominous strength around the middle third of the field: “When you get to this stage the focus is really about ourselves. You can’t really worry too much about individuals on other teams . . . Look, Cork are a very strong team. There is a big game in Cork, for sure.
“We came out on the right side of the result the last day, with a bit of luck, but we are always going out to try and win the games, and we will give this one a really good run. Logic would say Cork should beat us, but sport is just not like that. It is all on the day.”
Gilroy reckoned Dublin only performed to about “70 per cent” of their potential against Tyrone: “There’s still an awful lot we’re still not doing. We’re trying to do it, but it’s still not coming off. If we can get that right we’ll have a great chance in games. We’re certainly getting a lot closer to what we’re trying to do as the games have gone on.
“But we gave the ball away too easy against Tyrone. Times when we weren’t under pressure. Cork have clinical forwards. We can’t cough up as many chances this time. Also we gave away too many soft frees at times. Opposition kick-outs, I suppose we have to work on those too. So there’s massive improvement there for the team. Whether it’s going to happen in this short a space of time, we’ll wait and see.”
Tyrone had 56 per cent of the possession against Dublin, and still lost. Likewise, Armagh had 54 per cent, and Wexford 53 per cent. Gilroy saw all that in the positive light. “It’s what you do when you have the possession that is important,” he mused.
On the issue of the fencing being erected at Hill 16, the Dublin manager was largely agreeable: “If there is a genuine risk of someone getting killed by not having the fence then it is better to have the fence.”
He also agrees with the idea that the championship structures should be re-examined.
“It is harsh on provincial winners, and we said it last year, that you lose one match after that and you’re gone. But there is a serious benefit to be playing games, so the whole format, of how the provincial champions are left for three or four weeks without playing games, should be looked at.”
