ANY LINGERING HOPES Dublin fans might have entertained about the possibility of a return to county colours for Stephen Cluxton were officially laid to rest yesterday afternoon in Tullamore, when Dublin manager confirmed that the eight-time All-Ireland winner was not part of his plans for 2022.
“Stephen won’t be involved this year, he wasn’t involved last year” Farrell told reporters after his side’s 2-12 to 0-13 win over Offaly.
“Stephen’s not one for big announcements as you know! There’ll be no fanfare or official announcements from him, but he won’t be involved this year. Out of respect to him, we need to let him live his life and we need to do our own thing, so we know the position and hopefully everyone else knows it at this stage as well”.
Farrell also ruled out a return to county action for Jack McCaffrey and Paul Mannion, saying that the two men had made their decisions and he had no reason to believe there was a change of mind.
Mannion, who missed tonight’s win for Kilmacud Crokes in the final of the Leinster club championship, has worked with Farrell at many levels of Dublin football, and remains in contact with the Na Fianna man.
“I’ve a very good relationship with Paul going back to development squad years, so we’re in communication. Paul has been clear why he’s stepped away, his position hasn’t changed, and we respect that” Farrell said.
On the other side of the coin, he quashed rumours that either Brian Howard or Con O’Collaghan would be unavailable for the season, saying that both men were part of his panel.
“I don’t know where that stuff comes from, you know yourself what you can do with that!” was his response to a question suggesting that both men had decided to travel this year.
“Those lads will definitely be around. There’s plenty of fuel in the rumour mill around Dublin anyway, that’s for sure!”
Concluding, he said that it had been a very different winter in the Dublin camp, but that he felt they had dealt with the demons of last year’s surprise loss to Mayo at Croke Park.
“It was definitely time for reflection, and in the situation, that’s all you can do, to review and take the learnings from last season, the dimensions that you can improve on, and make things better for the season ahead. That would be quite typical for a team that was in the situation we found ourselves in, and we’ve gone through that process now and we’re looking forward to the season ahead” he concluded.
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Evan Comerford is a excellent keeper, The real issue is Paul Manion he’s the lad they really need back on the panel.
@Neil Feirtèir: no matter how good their replacements are, all three of them are among the best 2-3 players in the country in their position, so all huge losses. I’m saying that Dublin had 2 years in the all Ireland u20 final before this one and very few from those teams have come through yet – so won’t be lack of quality replacements.
@Neil Feirtèir: in 2020 he was used mainly as a sub.
Great news for the rest of us
Dublin have loads of very good footballers, even without those that have retired/not committed. Still, the aura on invincibility has gone. Much like the great Kilkenny Hurling side they have come back to the chasing pack. Should be a great championship.
Had anyone seen or heard of the wannabe journalist Ewan?
I thought Dublin were guaranteed to win for the next decade with the financial advantage.
Cad a tharla?
@TheHospitalPass: Well they won 8 in the last decade so whoever your on about is not far off. Wouldn’t be surprised with the same this decade
@TheHospitalPass: Would that be the arch anti-dub Ewan Mc Kenna.
Some performance over the whole match v Offaly by Ciaran Kilkenny and it’s still only January!