The bare stats are sobering. Dublin won five out of five at the start of the league campaign. Stephen Cluxton got rested up and now they’ve drawn one and lost one out of their two games since.
Everyone knows how important he is – he’s one of the greatest footballers of all time and he’s actually the only player in the team that they can’t do without. Everyone else is replaceable. Everyone.
However, it’s not like he’s going anywhere in a hurry. The need to find the perfect ready-made successor isn’t urgent. He’s still the very, very best and showing no signs of slowing up – he’ll win plenty of more All-Irelands but, in the mean time, how are they supposed to mould a new goalkeeper to fill the biggest shoes that will ever be left if they’re not even going to give anyone else a chance?
Evan Comerford has played far too little as it is over the last couple of years and, when he finally gets his chance, some fans are pining for Cluxton again with nothing but short-term panic thinking. Granted, it’s obviously not everyone on Hill 16 and a lot of them can actually see the wood for the trees and the need to let Comerford experience top-end games but the fall-out from the defeat to Monaghan is bonkers.
Stephen Cluxton: The greatest footballer of all time? https://t.co/XQUjLDqvyK
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) July 18, 2017
The stats are that they haven’t won since Cluxton put his feet up this season.
The stats are that the kickouts weren’t as successful as they are when Cluxton is there – of course they’re bloody not.
But there are also other stats being ignored. The missed goal chances, the sloppy tracking, the allowing Vinny Corey to run right through, the luck for McCarron’s green flag and the general sluggishness which affected everything about Dublin from their slow, far-too-risk-free attacking play to the options they were showing Comerford for the kicks.
This was a rare Dublin performance in that it was so flat. Players were rested, the place in the final already secured and, for whatever reason, standards right across the board dropped and it’s probably the worst thing that could’ve happened to Galway for next weekend because, by Jesus, they should expect a backlash.
Comerford didn’t dominate the game like Stephen Cluxton does but how on earth is he supposed to do that if the minute he’s allowed to go play a game himself, he’s pillared and fans are screaming for the return of the old faithful because winning every single one of these games by whatever means is apparently more important than the long-term strategy? A strategy which, by the way, should be prepared for whenever Cluxton isn’t available – whether it’s in five years time or this season with injury (but he’ll be available anyway because he always is, so it’ll be grand).
And those hitting the panic button on a dead rubber game because they think of nothing but the 70 meaningless minutes in front of them are also undermining the impact of the rest of team that’s supposed to be one of the greatest of all time. Dublin’s options are beyond crazy and to say that the rest of them can only operate with Cluxton in goals seriously detracts from what they can all actually do and, for the first time, suggests they’re only a one-man team which no-one believes.
They’re better with Stephen Cluxton but they’re also better with a back-up plan.
Evan Comerford can only improve when he actually gets the chance to play and experience this pressure and expectation. And Dublin can only improve for it.
