AS THE REMAINS of their rivals are picked off the Dublin juggernaut, the All-Ireland champions are dusting themselves down and turning themselves around looking to finish off the job they started in such impressive style.

There is a touch of deja vu about all of this; two years ago many were talking about a period of dominance for the Dubs unseen since the great Kerry side of the 1970s/1980s.

The Dubs of two years ago had just won a second successive National League title, had claimed two of the previous three All-Irelands and the hype was inescapable. Shoo-ins to retain Sam Maguire, we were told.

Jim McGuinness’s Donegal put any such notions on hold, for the guts of two years at least, with their shock 3-14 to 0-17 semi-final win in 2014.

Pundits across the island have heaped praise on Jim Gavin’s charges like never before after their latest League triumph. Nine wins from nine outings, twice defeating Kerry and Donegal — makes for impressive reading.

Armagh legend Oisín McConville is one of those who has been lauding the Dubs of late, but he feels that Gavin has broken new ground this year. Stats aside, he believes the strength of these ‘Boys in Blue’ goes deeper than meets the eye.

So long bemoaned as a side who couldn’t produce the goods once they had cruised through Leinster relatively untested, these days McConville sees the Dubs as a battle-hardened outfit all-year round. And he puts that down to Gavin breaking down mental barriers amongst his charges, the distractions were chased out of sight — football became the only option on the menu.

“I think that Gavin has now just recently cracked the Dublin psyche in that it’s not about what the media says or anything else,” McConville told The42.

“He possibly doesn’t get the recognition he deserves because everyone is always saying ‘look at the players he has at his disposal’.

“But there have been a lot of players that have gone through Dublin that have been very, very prominent and there have been prominent groups of players.

“But it’s about trying to get the best out of them. I think the biggest thing he has done is keep them grounded.”

Right man in charge

Dublin boss Jim Gavin. Ryan Byrne / INPHO Ryan Byrne / INPHO / INPHO

McConville argues that while the Dubs may have the arsenal to destroy any threats to their crown, with the wrong man at the helm they could be led into a devastating ambush that would derail their plans to be the first side to retain the All-Ireland crown since Kerry in 2007.

Rory O’Carroll, a two-time All-Star is gone and Footballer of the Year Jack McCaffrey is also unavailable but Gavin just keeps the big wheels rolling.

‘No one is bigger than the team,’ we often hear from managers who inside, we know, are squeamish at the prospect of losing their most dangerous forward.

The fact that Gavin’s tactical plan relies on no one individual to be effective, bar Stephen Cluxton perhaps, means no player is safe from being hauled off if they aren’t producing, McConville argues.

“There was a stage in the game last Sunday where Philly McMahon wasn’t fulfilling his defensive duties, Cluxton had a go at him. Mick Deegan (Dublin selector) came on and had a go at him,” McConville explained.

“Diarmuid Connolly started doing his own thing and he got taken off, he let him cool his heels. If he doesn’t wanted to buy into the team ethic then he’s not going to get picked.

“Jim Gavin did that to Bernard Brogan two years ago on a number of occasions and I think that’s the difference between Dublin and everyone else; they’re setting higher standards for themselves.

“Dublin could have kept it to about a three or four-point victory last weekend. But the scary thing for everyone else is that when Dublin went off the pitch after the game against Kerry and into the changing rooms, they still weren’t happy. After beating Kerry by 11 points, they still weren’t happy with what had gone on during the game.

“For me, that’s the scary thing, they want more and there probably is more in the tank.”

Mental strength

For all their strengths, McConville concedes there remains a risk of complacency but in counter-argument he again highlights their mental agility, their insatiable appetite for success and refusal to reflect on a job well done.

“If they were winning a League title and maybe were being very happy with that then I’d have more concerns. But to win a League title and to be sort of down on yourself that they didn’t do everything properly, that says a lot.

“Dublin were very sloppy for large periods of the League final and yet they still won by 11 points and on another day, playing to their best, they could have won it by 20 points.

“There is always a danger of over-hyping. There is a danger because players are human beings and they can get wrapped up that.

“That can be thrown and used against the Dubs a lot of the time. One of things people say is ‘get the Dubs out of Croke Park’. I always say to those people, ‘think of the pressure on those players when they have to continuously turn it on and play in Croke Park. Think of the pressure that they’re under.’

“When it comes to pass that they do go outside the county, think of the fire that will be in their bellies if they have to play games outside of Croke Park and people are saying that they can’t win. That’s sort of been put to bed in that they’ve gone through the League unbeaten.

“There have been lots of times when they’ve been tested. The night they played Mayo, in Mayo, with a monsoon, in a game where they were missing five or six players, probably the most players they were missing throughout the League.

“That flaky Dublin team of four or five years ago, the Dublin team I would have played against, certainly would have lost that game.

“This Dublin team is different, it’s not just the mentality but they have the quality as well.”

Talking about the wonderful depth of the Dubs will become a broken record before the summer anthems start getting catchy at this rate. It is the chasing pack wh9 are generating the questions of real intrigue.

And McConville is unequivocal when asked about the where the best of the rest are at heading towards the beautiful summer days when ‘The Sunday Game’ theme tune brings a smile to the face of so many GAA fans.

McConville believes Kerry, Mayo and Donegal make up the first bunch trailing the Dubs with Roscommon, Tyrone and Monaghan best placed in the peloton to make a charge for glory.

Tyrone

Tyrone manager Mickey Harte. Presseye / Andrew Paton/INPHO Presseye / Andrew Paton/INPHO / Andrew Paton/INPHO

Mickey Harte’s Tyrone side are the dark horses for many in 2016. Although, they’re hardly coming under the radar on the back of a Division 2 League title, an U21 All-Ireland last year and the experience of running Kerry close at Croke Park just over eight months ago.

But McConville can’t see Harte’s side bridging the gap with the country’s top three just yet. Until they add a bit of steel, he feels the status quo is safe.

“I think they’re missing a couple of key components that you need to win an All-Ireland.

“They need a bit more physicality up front. They’ve got three very good corner-forwards in Ronan O’Neill, Darren McCurry and Conor McAlliskey. But they’re very much same same and I don’t know that you can play all three of them in the one forward line because they’re too small.

“Sean Cavanagh isn’t noted for his major physicality. Obviously, he’s an unbelievable footballer and an unbelievable servant. But he’s an out-and-out footballer. And I don’t know that they have that ruthlessness to win an All-Ireland, someone like a Paul Flynn, like a (Diarmuid) Connolly.”

Free-taking

INPHO INPHO

As a footballer, McConville did it all — and he did it all from the ground.

A free-taker of prolific proportions, his list of honours is something to behold; 16 Armagh club titles, 10 Ulster club titles, six All-Ireland club titles, seven Ulster SFC crowns, one National Football League, two All-Stars and one All-Ireland victory.

McConville was also a valuable in-play contributor but his free-taking may well be his lasting legacy. And he can’t help but voice his displeasure at so many goalkeepers taking frees within shooting range at inter-county level these days.

“Goalkeepers taking free kicks, I absolutely hate it,” he admitted.

“If there are six forwards on the field and none of them can take a free kick, and you’re calling up the goalkeeper? Not for me.

“The way we used to look at goalkeeping was that if you were last picked, you were in goals.

“That’s obviously changed now, the goalkeeper has become such an important part of the game but I still maintain that you should have a forward capable of scoring anything inside 55 yards.”

Crossmaglen

McConville has taken a step back from management this year, he and John McEntee were jointly at the helm when Crossmaglen Rangers fell to an agonising, one-point, All-Ireland semi-final loss to Castlebar Mitchels in February.

He will remain with the club’s seniors in a coaching capacity and admits Crossmaglen have been dealing with “a bit of a hangover” from their February loss as they have lost two of their opening three league games.

But the remarkable Crossmaglen story will go on, 19 county titles in the last 20 years, six All-Ireland wins in the same period, all from a small town in south Armagh that has battled through hard times only to emerge victorious, again and again.

In a BBC documentary earlier this year, ‘Crossmaglen: Field of Dreams’, journalist Thomas Niblock attempted lift the veil on a place that fascinated many. A small town regarded as ‘bandit country’, as well known for its PSNI base and involvement in The Troubles as it was for Gaelic football.

In it, an irate McConville is seen delivering an expletive-laden, pre-match team-talk Tony D’Amato would have been proud of. And the 40-year-old admits, while the documentary was received very well at home, he hardly recognised himself on screen.

“The documentary was received very well. I think it was done tastefully, I think it was a true reflection of who we are,” McConville explained.

“I suppose I was a little bit upset that it didn’t have the fairytale ending that we wanted it to have in winning an All-Ireland club title. But look, football is much like life and life is not always a fairytale.

“Seeing my speech was like an outer-body experience, I don’t think that was me at all,” McConville says with a chuckle.

“It looked like somebody else. But look, that’s how passionate we are about it. We make no bones of the fact that we don’t have any other sports; we don’t have any soccer, any rugby, any hurling.

“We’re trying to break new ground and be the best we can be with the players that we have. That’s always the goal, to try and keep it going. And it’s hard because when you’re successful players tend to get soft and it’s difficult to keep that softness away.”

Oisín McConville is one of the jurors in TV3’s ‘Trial of the Century’ which is airing over three consecutive nights from 9.15pm on Saturday 30 April, Sunday 1 May and Monday 2 May.

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