DUBLIN MANAGER DESSIE Farrell has confirmed that Seán Bugler stands no more than a ‘touch and go’ chance of playing a role in the All-Ireland football final against Kerry.
The St Oliver Plunkett’s/Eoghan Ruadh man had been named to start last Saturday’s All-Ireland semi-final against Monaghan but was replaced by Paddy Small, owing to a calf injury.
“It’ll be touch and go, being honest. We’re throwing everything at it and we’re hoping he’ll be alright,” Farrell explained.
“As I said we’re hoping we’re going to have him right. I honestly don’t know whether he will be or not. So it’ll be, I’d imagine, a late fitness test and all of that. Everyone else is in good shape.”
The potential loss of Bugler robs Dublin of a forceful presence who has come to nail down his place in a tough forward division, Farrell acknowledges.
“Yeah, he’d been going well, for sure. Maturing and developing nicely this season. But, look it, that’s the nature of it. We’ve got out of it relatively okay in terms of when you look at it in its entirety. But player availability is important the next day. If you can have everyone available to you it helps, doesn’t it?”
While Jack McCaffrey came on against Monaghan to great effect, with Dublin pushing Lee Gannon into a more advanced position, he hasn’t been as prominent as many expected from the 2015 Footballer of the Year.
Farrell explained this is also tied to injury.
“He’s had a couple of bouts of injury as well so we probably had to reappraise how we could manage Jack throughout the season. Definitely managing his load and volume was important,” said Farrell, who admitted that handling these situations can be troublesome.
“They’re always challenging conversations because the nature of the beast is very competitive and everyone feels they can make a contribution. It’s not just with senior players, it’s some of the younger players, which is to be encouraged as well and we like to see that.
“Those conversations at any stage in the season, and it doesn’t really matter who the player is, they’re always difficult. But ultimately everyone knows the decisions are being made for the betterment of the group and thankfully everybody buys into that.”
With McCaffrey, Stephen Cluxton and Paul Mannion returning to the sky blue jersey this year, getting them to the physical peaks required has been an ongoing process, Farrell explained.
“It’s trying to manage that throughout the season and particularly later on because there’s volume load, mileage, years, there were all sorts of dimensions to it. Bryan Cullen and the lads have been a huge help,” he said.
“It’s not just that you’re trying to make it an exact science, it’s not. You’re dependent on players’ honesty and their engagement and communicating with them regularly to see how they’re feeling and what’s going on for them and that type of thing and you make some calls then around the bigger training sessions or games or whatever it might be then as a result.”
Great idea,, much easier to walk out before the final whistle,,, à la last year…;)
@devils avacado: have you ever considered eating yourself, serious question?
It works very well on hill 16 except when the GAA over sell it . Keep the numbers right shouldn’t be a problem when social distancing regulations are relaxed
Has to be a safe option for this season anyway
Money money money
@The Irish Pain: more money where?
I suppose if the fans are standing up it’s harder for them to fall asleep watching a shite team .
@Ger Martin: great team at Anfield these days and its still ynwa for 2 mins at the start and 2 mins at the end and nothing in between. Yawn
@Ger Martin: Why do you devote so much energy into hating an English team that you have no geographical connection to?
@Mossy: relax lenny, don’t see anyone questioning your simpsons character/profile pic!
@Mossy: you know Ger personally do you ? It was a joke. Lighten up. It was of a better quality then the like of the ‘loserpool’ stuff on here. Nobody Monday a decent or semi decent joke.
@Brian Dunne: if you believe that then I guess you’re the type of fan who watches highlights on youtube and just reads the headlines to stay in the loop trying to be cool.
@King B: nah its common knowledge.
@Brian Dunne: oh right, well if that is truly the case then at least the fans are there for the last two minutes compared to other fair weather, submissive, prawn sandwich eating fans.
@King B: yeah yeah. Sorry, pool fans are the most sooper dooper fans in the world. Happy?
@Brian Dunne: not entirely, you forgot the part where you say man u fans are the worst.
@King B: correct,sorry. I forgot about that time united fans behaviour led to a European ban on all english teams. Oh wait….
@Brian Dunne: typical man u fan, always blowing on about history….
@King B: typical pool fan,try to rewrite history….
@Brian Dunne: now where did I suggest that?
Our future is positive, that’s the way I’m looking you can stay in the distant past if you’d like.
@King B: yeah the pool fans love forgetting certain things from the past when it suits them. Can’t be taking away from the “best fans in the world” image now can we?
@Brian Dunne: I wasn’t even born sham so how I could possibly remember it?
Let’s talk about the present and try and drag yourself out of the past.
your skummy fans singing songs about Hillsborough every chance they get?
Ever heard of Icj or the m58 firm?
Drug and people traffickers, armed robbers and they’re all hooligans involved in the ‘red army’. That’s what man u fans are up to today. Skum of the earth.
@King B: your lot were quite happy singing munich songs for years before Hillsborough. Some still sing about it. Robbing tickets off each other in athens. Heysel. Lovely lot.
@Brian Dunne: are you still talking about events in the past?
@King B: or we can talk about more recent behaviour like attacking opponents team busses. Throwing excrement in cups at old trafford. Damaging seats and toilets at old trafford. Lovely lot. Salt of the earth
@Brian Dunne: stuff was thrown at a bus, no fans no where have ever done that before. there’s books and newspaper articles to back up my point about your fans being criminals. Do you’ve any for your claims?
@King B: everything i mentioned was documented either online or in newspapers. Every club has a bad elememt following them. But liverpool fans like to put themselves on a pedestal and think they are better than everyone else when the truth is very different
@Brian Dunne: I googled searched and searched and found nothing to those claims. I’ve nothing better to be doing so it was a solid search.
No we don’t, just because you say we do doesn’t make it true.
Nice sly dig about Hillsborough there too, see skum.. We know the truth.
@King B: what sly dig about Hillsborough you absolute melt??
Have the local council nothing better to be doing at the moment!!??