The wagons have been circled.
It’s a great time to be a Dublin football fan. Going for three in a row this year for the first time since 1923 and a fifth All-Ireland title in seven years, they are now truly the dominant force in Gaelic football today.
We’ve had to endure the barren years of the 80s (bar 1983) and 90s (bar 1995) and all of the noughties. Much maligned and criticised for bottling it on the big occasion, there was almost a sympathy for the team from the capital. Some people eulogised that a successful Dublin team would be good for the GAA.
There was way too much heartbreak and disappointment for ardent Dublin fans. With their resources and population, it simply wasn’t good enough. I remember thinking we’d never win an All-Ireland in my lifetime after we had been handed our arses on a plate by Kerry in 2009 as they walloped us by 19 points in an All-Ireland quarter-final.
Then, in 2011 on September 18th at Croke Park, two minutes into injury time, Stephen Cluxton stood up to take a free for Dublin into the Hill 16 end which would win the All-Ireland for the first time since 1995. He scored, Dublin beat Kerry and everything changed.
Clip via joes gaa.
I, like a lot of Dublin fans, cried my eyes out. I couldn’t actually believe we had won Sam and to do it against our biggest rivals and in injury time too, the stuff of fairytales. Little did we know what lay ahead and how much of a fillip to the mentality of this side it would become.
Dublin now had a confidence, a swagger and played accordingly. Apart from one or two defeats, they wiped the floor with all around them. A thrilling, swashbuckling style of play endeared them to even the most anti-Dublin fans out there. They were the poster boys for footballing purists everywhere.
Journalists everywhere told us we were witnessing football at its purest at its most thrilling and that we should just sit back and enjoy them and be thankful to be in the same era as this dominant Dublin team.
All-Ireland champions are there to be shot at. Dublin are there to be shot at, but there’s been a bit of a shift in the consensus of GAA fans of a non-Dublin variety. Ever since Jim Gavin imposed the media ban on individual player interviews over what he thought was the trial by TV afforded to Diarmuid Connolly, the mood has changed about this Dublin team.
All of a sudden, they are the bad guys again, the team everyone loves to hate and it has sparked off all kinds of debate. Dublin fans are up in arms over what they see as the witch-hunt on Connolly and non-Dublin fans are now feeling that Dublin are arrogant, spoilt and prone to throwing their toys out of the pram when they don’t get their own way.
As a Dublin fan, I enjoyed the compliments bestowed upon them and of course agreed with every one of them. I liked that Dublin were put on a pedestal to show the rest of the country how to do it the right way. This team was the template for the rest to copy.
But then Diarmuid put his hands on a linesman, got a 12 week ban and subsequently, Jim Gavin imposed the media ban. Is he right? I’m sure Jim Gavin isn’t worried about what other counties think, but the romantic in me is a little frustrated. I enjoy this Dublin team being celebrated because, let’s face it, when Dublin are on form, there are few better sights in Irish sport and it was nice to see the recognition from other counties.
Now, it seems the wagons have been circled in the Dublin camp in retaliation to what they viewed as trial-by-television when it came to the Connolly incident. The critics are now out in force complaining about the snowflake nature of Dublin’s response to the Connolly ban. Instead of looking ahead to what could be a thrilling championship, all the talk is about the media ban.
Dublin fans will always stand up for their team. It’s always been Dublin v the 31 other counties and aside from the gush of love towards them for the past few years, it’s always been the city boys versus the country cousins.
Any criticism will be vehemently defended by the Dublin fans regardless of its justification. Jim Gavin has had an incredibly successful tenure as Dublin manager and he’s not finished yet. He’s a deep thinker of the game and I just wonder if this media-ban is a ploy from him to create this siege mentality in the Dublin camp.
Perhaps he wasn’t too comfortable with all the plaudits coming their way. Could it make the players become a little complacent? If you keep hearing how great you are, there might be times when you start to believe the hype and that’s when the train derails.
The big matches in the Championship between Dublin, Kerry, Mayo, Donegal, Tyrone etc are often decided by very small margins. Is Gavin creating this us against them mentality to squeeze another vital inch for his team?
They are going for three-in-a-row this year and maybe, just maybe, this is deliberate from Dublin and could be just the edge they need in their quest.
I’ll still be roaring them along this summer, but now with extra verve because I know now, it’s my beloved Dubs against the rest again. We are Dublin, super Dublin, no-one likes us, we don’t care…..
Well, maybe a little.
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