By John Harrington

The idea that another Dublin manager would ever put Kevin Heffernan in the shade would have been scoffed at not so long ago. But an argument can now be made that current Dubs boss Jim Gavin is on the way to doing just that.

After all, he achieved more in his first three years in charge of the team than Heffernan did in his. Gavin won two All-Irelands, three Leinster Championships and three National Leagues compared to Heffernan’s two All-Irelands, three Leinster Championships and one National League. In his fourth year in charge Gavin has already added a fourth National League and his Dublin team are hot favourites to lift provincial and All-Ireland honours again this year. 

Heffernan managed Dublin for 11 years between 1974 and 1985 (he stepped down from the role for a year in 1977) and by the end of his reign Dublin had accumulated three All-Irelands, eight Leinster Championships, and two National Leagues. Gavin has already won twice as many National League titles, and were he to manage Dublin for a total of 11 years up to the 2023 Championship it is easy to convince yourself he would also outstrip Heffernan’s tally of provincial and All-Ireland wins.

The counter-argument from Heffernan loyalists when it comes to gauging the ability of both men is that Heffernan transformed Dublin’s fortunes at a time when the county wasn’t mapped as a football force, whereas Gavin took charge of a team that had won an All-Ireland two years previously, were totally dominant in Leinster, and were backed up by successful underage teams churning out top-quality footballers.

There’s no doubt Gavin has been in the right place at the right time, but it’s equally beyond argument now that the Dublin County Board appointed the right man. Dublin has produced a generation of great footballers, but Gavin’s meticulous, tick every box approach to management is extracting the best from them. His forensic attention to detail and work ethic is what sets him apart, and Gavin himself believes that’s a skill-set that was honed by his career an Air Corps pilot and which translates well to inter-county management.

“It is, yeah,” Gavin told GAA.ie at the launch of the 2016 Leinster Championships. “There are long days, early mornings, and late nights. I was in the military for 20 years and the time-management skills that they imparted on me have withstood the test of time. I have my family and that's obviously a glass ball that can't break. My profession in aviation, again, I can't drop that ball either. And the sport that I have, my hobby, there's a bit of flexibility in that one.

“It's just trying to keep those three on the go, that's all I'd really have in my life. It's the same with the players, that's all they have in their lives, their family, their profession or academics, and their sport. It's something we love and enjoy. The strength of the Association is that it's a volunteer, community based sport Association and I get as much fun on a Saturday morning in this very park with the under eights in Ballyboden St. Endas as I would with the senior team.”

In a Sunday Independent interview last weekend, former Dublin star Alan Brogan revealed that when Gavin took charge of the team he had a different style of man management than his predecessor Pat Gilroy. Whereas Gilroy would keep senior players like Brogan “privy to what was going on”, Gavin didn’t. Brogan guessed that this might have been a “military thing”, and the Dublin manager himself doesn’t mind admitting he has been influenced a lot by working in a system where there is a defined chain of command.

“Absolutely. Most of my management and coaching style would be based on the lessons that I've picked up from my military career and now working with the Irish Aviation Authority as a regulator. Commercial Aviation is a very policy and process driven industry. The same with the football team, we're very driven in the process of getting our performance right. If we can do that, we'll be there or there abouts in any competition.”

A military structure might be quite a rigid one, but the best military commanders are always those who are tactically flexible. Gavin has built a very controlled environment around this Dublin team, but within it he is always trying to innovate and think of new ways to keep them at the cutting edge of the game.

He learned a harsh lesson in 2014 when he failed to tweak the tactical plan that won them an All-Ireland in 2013 and they were subsequently taken apart by Donegal in the All-Ireland semi-final. Last year he innovated with a new defensive structure that made Dublin much more difficult to break down, and they won the Sam Maguire again. This year he is determined to add more layers to the teams tactical approach.

“If you ask any of the managers here today they'll tell you there is no down-time,” said Gavin. “You're continuously looking for areas to improve on, areas to build upon. The National League is a fantastic competition, but the games come back to back and you don't really have time to lift your head up and look towards the Championship, but you wouldn't have it any other way.

“Our training plan would have been set at the very start of the year. In terms of what you want to do you're always adopting and being flexible all of the time. Both hurling and football on a tactical level are continuously evolving and changing. Gaelic Football has moved on another level I think this year and it'll be interesting to see what some roll teams out and what we can roll out during the summer as well.

“There's continuous growth there which is great for the game. And my job as manager is to come up with a tactical game-plan that suits our particular squad and their needs. We're simply there to serve the players and facilitate them. We understand that if we remain stagnant then other teams will go past us because other teams are evolving on a continual basis. It's my job as a manager and the management team to be as inventive as possible and add small layers to our game-plan and to what we do on the training park each and every week.

“There's areas in a technical and tactical level that you need to improve on and tweak. And when you're dealing with a squad of 30 players they need feed-back as well to see how they can grow because it's a team sport and it is all about getting the sum of the parts marching to the same beat in every game. That's a big challenge, but it's one that we enjoy doing.”

The players enjoy that approach as well because they always know where they stand with their manager. If they’re on the subs bench or fail to even make the match-day panel, they are told exactly why and given a list of things they need to improve on. 

"He's very good at feedback,” Bernard Brogan told GAA.ie “All players want to know where they are at. Any time anyone wants to ask them where they are, he is very honest. That's where you want to be as footballers, you want to know what do I need to do. If I wasn't playing I'd ask what do I need to do, need to work on your accuracy from play, hasn't been as good as Paddy Andrews or Cormac Costello.

“This is what you need to work on, get that right and you'll get your chance. As a player there are two things that you want, you want to be able get your place from form and get honest feedback instead of 'oh yeah I think you are in great shape, I think you're going to play’, and then you don't get picked and you don't hear anything for three weeks. I think that open honesty is a real key point that Jim has brought and that has given energy to younger lads and substitutes to push on and look for a place.”

Right now this Dublin team is a finely tuned machine. The ferocious competition among the players is driving them to new heights, and they’re being enabled to get there by a huge and extremely professional back-room team. The direction provided by the man at the top of the chain of command keeps everyone on the right path, though it has always been Gavin’s style to praise the collective rather than put himself on a pedestal.

“In the shadows away from the big games there's a very dedicated group who are there to facilitate the players from the management team, to the medical support team, to the backroom staff. It's the sum of their parts that is driving the thing on to be the best for the players and trying to facilitate them," said the Dublin manager.

“Similarly with the team, the character and the culture they have is that they are about the sum of their parts as well. So everyone's nose is pointing in the same direction and we're trying to be the best we can be for Dublin football.

“They're having great fun with those challenges that we present them. There is great character and great spirit in the job and long may that continue.”

Dublin fans will surely hope that long may Jim Gavin continue too.