SEAN MORANtalks to the recovering Dublin back Paul Griffin who tries to explain the county's recent implosions at this stage of the championship

IT WOULD be hard to say about any Dublin player of recent years that things had been going too well. Still, Paul Griffin had assembled a model career of steady progression through under-age ranks including an All-Ireland under-21 medal, Sigerson Cup, All-Ireland club success with Kilmacud Crokes and five senior Leinster championships with the county – culminating in being appointed captain last year.

Last March 13th progress was halted. In the team as a half-time replacement during the rapid-fire tours of duty in the National League Griffin, nursing a back injury, went for a kick-out against Monaghan. His foot caught when jumping and he landed awkwardly. There was no instant revelation but 10 days later after scans, diagnosis and surgery he was recovering from surgery for tears to both his lateral and cruciate ligaments.

Coping with serious trauma in his work as a physiotherapist at the National Rehabilitation Hospital, he’s not inclined to blow his problems out of proportion.

“It happened back in March so I’ve had plenty of time to come around to the idea. The recovery period is clear-cut so this season isn’t going to happen. It’s one of those things, you get over it. I’d been lucky up until now, never really missing any games because of injury.”

His role as captain has passed to David Henry but Griffin attends training sessions and maintains his dressingroom presence so he has combined the insider experience with the distance of a non-combatant.

It’s been an unusual year for Dublin, who take on Ulster champions Tyrone this afternoon in yet another All-Ireland quarter-final against blue-chip opposition (the sixth time in seven years they have come up against Tyrone or Kerry in the All-Ireland series – the previous occasions have seen their conquerors go on to lift Sam Maguire).

This time around the route hasn’t been the straightforward march through Leinster of the past five seasons. An encouraging league gave way to a calamitous championship in which a largely new team struggled for confidence and the security conscious tactics of the spring fell apart with Meath ransacking them for five goals. So for the first time in six years Dublin have been toiling off-Broadway picking their way through the qualifiers in front of smaller crowds with diminished expectation.

“What the qualifiers have provided us with this year is more football. We brought a lot of guys through in the league and they were playing their first championship games in Leinster. It’s benefited them hugely to have had extra games and get guys playing in that kind of environment. It is different to playing in the league.

“It’s been a benefit to us this year. Whether it’s a benefit every year depends on the structure of your team. If you’re looking to build and looking for games then the qualifiers might be an option. But no one likes to lose a championship game and we were proud of our record in Leinster.”

Griffin’s own game has been sacrificed to the common good through his career. Naturally a half back with exceptional anticipation and the pace to get him to the danger areas, he spent a lot of his Dublin years at corner back – a switch pioneered in an All-Ireland minor semi-final victory over Kerry when he moved back to contain Colm Cooper.

Playing Griffin in his best position was – as one experienced observer put it – “a luxury the team couldn’t afford”.

It had been different more recently. Pat Gilroy has spent his two years in charge assembling a new full-back line with the captain detailed to play his optimum role as a covering defender and conduit for turning defensive possession into attacking ball.

Tyrone are not the most reassuring sight. Five years ago Dublin played well enough to draw the match and force Mickey Harte to come up with an All-Ireland winning configuration.

But three years later, puffed up into favourites for the match the Leinster champions sank as the Ulster side drowned them on a rain-deluged afternoon.

Then 12 months ago, again – in retrospect unbelievably – favourites Dublin were blitzed in such a way as to make the 2008 quarter-final seem a cliff hanger.

“After the Tyrone game two years ago,” says Griffin, “it might have been a sense it was one of those days – an off day when it didn’t happen – but when it happens again you’ve got to think harder about it. You can’t use the same excuse. That’s probably what led to looking at bringing in more guys and changing the style of play.

“Tactically we had to look at what we were doing. On the back of the two previous years where we’d come up against stronger teams we’d under-performed but also left ourselves very open and allowed the game to be taken away from us very quickly. This year we had to look at making ourselves more difficult to beat.”

He still doesn’t know for certain what happened on those stark, belittling afternoons that provided sufficient fuel for a generation to cast Dublin as over-hyped and under-performing. “Both years we prepared well but didn’t perform on the day. We didn’t get stuck in, probably showed too much respect by standing off and allowing too much space.

“They’re so comfortable on the ball they’ll just play around you. We never made it difficult for them to move it. If you allow them chances they’re clinical and efficient and will take their scores. Why? There were probably elements of nerves and anxiety but also we also had to get a bit more clarity as to what exactly we needed to do to be involved in the game.

“You’re aware a game is drifting away but your focus is still on trying to get that next ball and then at half-time trying to regroup and re-establish a foothold.

“But the longer the score-line stays similar, as it did in both of those games the whole thing peters out and has a challenge game feel by the end. Against Tyrone and Kerry the intensity dropped when it became clear the lead wasn’t going to be recovered. The problem was when we were under pressure we didn’t control things enough to limit the damage to give ourselves a chance to get back into it. Without that neither of those teams were going to concede enough to allow us back.”

This afternoon, Dublin are back and this time unburdened by out-sized expectation. Recovery for Griffin is steadily approaching but for his team a win would constitute rehabilitation even he would find impressive.