Dublin manager Jim Gavin.
By Cian O'Connell
Dr Pat O'Neill sees the similarities between Mayo and the Dublin team he guided to All Ireland glory in 1995.
“It's funny that you ask that but on Sunday evening I was involved in a debate on that," O'Neill said about whether Mayo are now like Dublin 21 years ago. "Yes, it does actually.
"I would have to say it anyway, I think the early 90s Dublin team was a good team, but there were other good teams around as well who took them on.
"Yes, there is an element of that and that team did eventually get over the line, probably in the worst All-Ireland that it played in. It had played better in ones that it had lost."
When Dublin were beaten in the 1994 All Ireland Final by Down was a severe examination. “If you're trying to bring the numbers along with you, whoever is working with you in the capacity of managing and dealing with the team and, even more importantly, getting the players to have the confidence that they can roll on.
"I think invariably they do because they know where they've got to and they know that there's another step and they do believe but it does take that little bit extra bit of physical and psychological work to try and convince them of that.
"And, of course, frustration sets in and if frustration sets in then you get disciplinary issues coming into it, both within the team and then in the deliverance of the game. Reflecting back all those years ago, we had those as well, but they're understandable."
Pat Gilroy managed Dublin to the 2011 All Ireland title.
How heavy was the pressure of looking to secure back to back All Ireland on Dublin in the drawn encounter? “It would be a factor, but it's also an endorsing factor because it's certainly one of the criteria for being a unique team, to get the back to back. To get the three-in-a-row type thing.
"So, yeah, it is a factor, it does put on more pressure, but it's also something that drives one on actually.
"I think the other factor, particularly in the likes of Mayo and Dublin, is that there are players that have been there quite a while now actually and there's a lot of so-called mileage on the clock and that's physical mileage and psychological mileage and I think you can see certain elements of that in some players now on both sides."
O'Neill handed current Dublin manager, Jim Gavin, his senior inter-county playing debut. “Interestingly, the two managers that have taken Dublin to the last All-Irelands all came from that team, the two of them have come from that team, from those 90s teams, both Pat Gilroy and Jim Gavin were part of the '95 team," O'Neill recalls.
"That's the kind of rolling legacy I think that happens with a lot of counties but it happens particularly in Dublin. Sort of the legacy of Kevin Heffernan being rolled from decade to decade."
Did O'Neill see Gavin developing into such a successful manager back then? “Well I wouldn't have been looking at it from that point of view," O'Neill responds.
"The way I'd be looking at it at that particular time was he did his job as a player and whatever role he did and that he did. We've alluded to that in some commentary in the intervening years and he certainly did.
"He was certainly very disciplined and functioned as part of a team and I think you can still see that.
"It's very much a team effort, he doesn't promote individuals in any form or fashion. I wouldn't have been thinking that way at the time, but it's nice to think that the two lads, successful managers, came from that group in those years."
