Search icon

GAA

02nd Oct 2017

Dublin were so well prepared for All-Ireland final they even planned Con O’Callaghan’s goal

Right down to the last detail

Darragh Culhane

Dublin

When you look at Jim Gavin you are looking at one of the greats.

He comes across as a man that is meticulous in every detail, a man that leaves no stone unturned.

You have Bill Belichick in the NFL, Alex Ferguson in soccer, Brian Cody in hurling and now Jim Gavin can rightfully join the list of elite managers that are the best in their sport.

Three-in-a-row in this day and age is something special.

Dublin somehow found an answer for everything against Mayo, despite the dogged intensity and quick counter-attacking that Stephen Rochford’s side brought to the contest and won by the smallest of margins.

They can thank a lot of their players for the win, Dean Rock for slotting over the winning point, James McCarthy for his best ever performance in a Dublin jersey and Con O’Callaghan for getting the wheels in motion after his opening goal at the start of the game.

For someone that made such a huge impact on the biggest of stages, the whole process hasn’t seemed to have phased Con O’Callaghan.

The Cuala man was recently speaking at the launch of Sky Sports GAA Grassroots and went into detail of how, with the help of Kevin McManamon, they had planned down to the very detail how they would get the ball past 2016 All-Star David Clarke:

“I managed to get around and toe poke it into the net,” O’Callaghan said. 

“Kevin McManamon did a very good analysis there, we said that David Clarke is a really good goalkeeper and makes himself very big so you have to keep the ball low on the ground and if not he’ll save it.

“That’s all I was trying to do, just keep it low,” the Cuala man concluded. 

Sky Sports announced it is partnering with the GAA on three major grassroots initiatives which will see the broadcaster invest a total of €3 million euro over five years.

LISTEN: The GAA Hour – Klopp in Croker, flop in Kildare and the ‘worst fans’ award?

<iframe style=”border-radius:12px” src=”https://open.spotify.com/embed/episode/1XiM3ek4tWc7BjDZn5UcYj?utm_source=generator” width=”100%” height=”352″ frameBorder=”0″ allowfullscreen=”” allow=”autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; fullscreen; picture-in-picture” loading=”lazy”></iframe>