By John Harrington

Dublin footballer Dean Rock believes allowing clubs exclusive access to their county players at this time of the year can be of huge benefit for inter-county football teams.

Rock is speaking from personal experience, because even before April was ring-fenced for club activity this year it has been Dublin manager Jim Gavin’s policy to release his players to their clubs for a number of weeks after the conclusion of the Allianz Football League.

In that period of time the Dublin players do all their gym sessions and on-pitch training with their clubs, and they aren’t obliged to log what they do with the Dublin management.

Rock believes that clean break from the inter-county scene has played a big part in Dublin’s success in recent years because when the players reconvene for the Leinster Championship they’re fresh and hungry for action again.

“I can only speak from my own perspective and our team's perspective, that it's been hugely healthy for us,” Rock told GAA.ie.

“There’s zero communication with the Dublin set-up, we’re totally with the club. So, guys get their own gym sessions done and their own club training done as if you would with the county set-up.

“You're not going out there and putting on the Dublin gear for training. You're going out and putting on your club gear.

“Just even from a mental perspective it's good to have that change of gear for training. Certainly it's worked for us in the past where we've come back and everyone has come back really hungry and really mad for work and mad for championship prep.”

Rock regards it as a "huge privilege" to play for Ballymun Kickhams and makes the point that none of the Dublin players would have made it to the top of the inter-county game were it not for the support and guidance of their clubs along the way.

That’s particularly true for him because it was his consistently excellent performances for Kickhams when they won the 2012 Dublin Championship and went on to reach the All-Ireland Club Final on St. Patrick's Day the following spring that proved to be the launchpad for his inter-county career.

“Yeah, big time,” said Rock. “I would have been dropped from the Dublin panel in 2012 and then it was obviously make or break time for me in terms of whether I wanted to really pursue a (football) career here or did I want to hang out with my mates more and socialise a bit more.

“I knuckled down under Paul Curran who was manager at the time and just kind of transformed my own game and worked on as much as I could work, what I needed to work on, and built up my own strengths as well.

“And, yeah, just kind of carried that form through by playing so many games with the club at a National level as well.

“Jim called me in in 2013 once the club championship was over and, yeah, I haven't looked back since really.”

Ballymun Kickhams started this year's Dublin Football Championship impressively last weekend when they powered to a 2-13 to 1-10 victory over St. Brigid’s.

They begin every season with great expectations placed on their shoulders because of the sheer number of Dublin players in their team like Rock, James McCarthy, Philly McMahon, John Small, Paddy Small, and Evan Comerford.

But despite all that playing talent, they’re the great underachievers of Dublin football because they haven’t won a county title since that 2012 success.

“Yeah, that's the big thing,” said Rock. “But, I suppose, what we haven't had in the last number of years is lots of young guys coming through who are ready to play senior football (like we have) now.

“Hopefully, look, we'll only really know when the county season is over where we're at when it comes to the quarter-final stage, where this Ballymun team is at.

“Hopefully we're in a position to compete again and go a little bit closer. Because it is quite disappointing that we've only managed to win one championship in that period of time with the amount of quality players that we have.”

*Dean Rock was in Carton House today to help mark the commencement of the 2018 AIG Cups & Shields season and to celebrate AIG’s 20th anniversary as a partner to the GUI and ILGU. AIG revealed details of their ‘AIG Golfer Anniversary Sale,’ where they are offering up to 20% off car insurance and up to 50% on home Insurance.