Barney Rock and Eddie Keher pictured at the KN Group All Ireland Golf Challenge launch.
By Cian O'Connell
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With an accomplished team Dublin’s current stars have proven to be ready, willing, and able to shred all types of records.
An unbeaten Allianz Football League and Championship run now stretches to a staggering 34 matches. Barney Rock, famously an All Ireland winner in 1983, is ideally placed to assess Dublin’s dominance.
“I always compare teams every decade,” Rock says when asked about how highly he rates Dublin presently. “We had the Dublin team of the 70s, I thought they were an exceptional team which started all of this for most of us. That is where it all began.
“At that stage Dublin were maybe only winning one All Ireland in a decade or whatever. But this team with (Jimmy) Keaveney came along then and won three and got to six consecutive Finals which was a big thing at that stage. We continued it in the 80s, the team of the 90s continued it as as well, we got to three All Irelands in the 80s and the team of the 90s got to I think four All Irelands.
“Everything goes in decades, Kerry in the 70s and 80s, then you had the Meath team and the Cork team. Then in the noughties you had a great Kerry team and Mickey's team (Tyrone) which did three. If you put the Tyrone performance against Kerry, Tyrone won three and were never beaten by Kerry in a Final.
“For this decade the 10s you'd have to say Dublin are the best team so far, but you still have two or three to go, and it is important. Life is short in football so it is important they keep doing what they are doing, go out to perform to get themselves over the line.”
Rock doesn't think the Dublin players are overly concerned or bothered by the unbeaten run. "I think that it is a media thing in a way," Rock says.
"I'm sure in the backs of their minds, because these are all very intelligent guys, they know it themselves. They won't pick up a paper, but they know what is going on around them. I think that they should beat Roscommon, but Roscommon are fighting for their lives.
"They need to win the last two, certainly this one to have a chance going into the last game. If they do surpass it, that will be it, that will be the end of it because the record will have been done. I think it won't matter after that, but if they keep going it just means from a Kerry point of view they won't like that record going."
Dean Rock is a key player for Dublin.
Does the fact that Dublin’s talented generation of players are re-writing the history books act as an added motivation? “It does, but you have a team with four or five fellas in their 30s,” Rock replies.
“So they'd be looking at it thinking maybe there is only a couple of more years left in it for them, but then you have lots of strength coming up behind them.
“It doesn't go on forever, it didn't go on forever for the Kerry lads. If you go back to 1986 it took Kerry 11 years after that to get to another All Ireland Final. You can only think year by year so it is important. The structure that is there under Jim Gavin, it is going very well, he just seems to have that Midas, magic touch.”
Rock spoke about ‘Kerry always wanting to be the best at everything’, but a similar culture exists in the capital too. “Everybody sets a benchmark for excellence,” Rock states.
“Going back the Dublin of the 70s creating a benchmark for us to come along. In the 80s they created a benchmark for the 90s team. The noughties team were very unlucky in the sense that they came up against good teams.
“They were always getting caught against Mayo or Kerry would beat them, but they were actually a good team. They just couldn't get over the line, but then in 2011 under Pat Gilroy when Dublin won the All Ireland you could hear the stands shake, the way they won it. Ever since then they just seem to have the Indian sign over Kerry.”
The mental ‘resolve’ Dublin continue to demonstrate impresses Rock. “I think it sums up the strength they have, the strength and mindset. The other thing is if they need to change people they change it.
"Paul Flynn came in, he played very, very well, Kevin McManamon came in played well. (Eoghan) O'Gara came in, used his strength and scored a great point. He probably was unlucky not to get a goal.
“Then Cian O'Sullivan came back so they seem to have great numbers, but you can only play 15. Getting the right 15 and finishing with the right 15 is the important thing.”
