Greg McEneaney backs Dubs to go for Sam

By John Harrington

Dublin defender Greg McEneaney sees no reason why the current generation of players can’t stand out from the long shadow cast by some of the greats that went before them and claim some glory of their own.

The Dubs won nine All-Ireland titles in 13 years from 2011 to 2023 but many of the legends who backboned that remarkable period of success have now retired.

The panel has seen a lot of churn in the last couple of seasons and last year’s All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Tyrone seemed to confirm that Dublin are now very much in a period of transition.

McEneaney is convinced though that they have the quality in their ranks to win the Sam Maguire Cup again this year under new manager Ger Brennan.

“I think if we play to our potential, we can do whatever we want to do,” he says. “If we want to win an All-Ireland final, we can do that if we want. So, yeah, I think that's probably the ceiling.

“I suppose we're probably saying to ourselves, why not us? They're obviously a golden generation and we look up to them very much, but now this generation is thinking, ‘Why not us? Why can't we be like those guys who've gone before us?’ That five-in-a-row team, six-in-a-row team, why can't we be like them?

“So I think that's the main focus of the group or I suppose thoughts in the group is, ‘Why not us?’

“Obviously the last two years have been very disappointing for us, so we're striving to be our own team and win by ourselves. Not really be like the Dublin team in the past, they've done it, so we're going to be easily able to do it. That's not our thoughts whatsoever.

“It's more so, we're a team now, teams have obviously gotten better, and we're striving to be our own team and win our own All-Irelands.”

McEneaney joined the Dublin panel as an 18-year-old in 2023 and feels like he has served his apprenticeship and it’s now time he became a key player in the starting XV under Ger Brennan and his new management team.

“Yeah, obviously I've been in and out of teams in the last four years,” he says. “But this year, on an individual level, I probably do strive to be a regular starter. Hopefully, by playing well, Ger can see that and pick me; or if not, then he won't.

“I suppose other lads are probably in the same boat, there's a lot of young lads there trying to cement a place that wasn't theirs from Dessie … Dessie obviously went with a different angle, different players.

“But it's good to have those fresh faces in this year. I suppose Ger is fresh, and Niall Moyna and Dean (Rock), and (Denis) Bastick and Clucko (Stephen Cluxton). They've seen Dublin teams in the last few years, but they're obviously fresh as well, so they can see, if this lad's going well, and this lad who's been on the team for the last couple of years, he'll start the lad who's playing better, rather than maybe the person who's been good for the last number of years but isn't in form. So the most in-form player will start.”

When assessing the areas that he feels Dublin needs to improve on from last year, a lack of consistency is the first thing McEneaney believes they need to address.

And he also thinks they need to exploit the new playing rules better than they did in 2025.

“We probably didn't take enough two-point shots last year, which is probably something we're going to be going after this year - taking more shots,” he says.

“Two-pointers, as you know, it's massive. Even if you get 50pc of them, it's two points.

“Even if you're down by six-seven points now, it doesn't really matter. You can easily take it on with two-pointers. Probably going after that more is probably a massive thing, and then our fielding.

“That's a part of the game that's probably gotten even bigger. So yeah, we'll definitely be going after those two areas.”