By John Harrington

There’s always been a certain mystique in Gaelic Games about winning five titles in a row for a very good reason – it’s bloody hard to do.

The Dublin Ladies Football team are now just one win away from their own five-in-a-row of All-Ireland titles, and if they complete the sequence they’ll be remembered forever as one of the greats of their game.

It’s not easy coming back year after year with a burning will to win, and it wouldn’t be possible at all if you didn’t have a management team canny enough to keep the players sufficiently motivated.

Dublin manager Mick Bohan clearly has a knack for keep his players straining at the leash, so how does he do it?

“You certainly have to reinvent the wheel each year,” says Bohan. “You have to do something different. Because no matter who you are, it can't become stale.

“I certainly know that we want to play with a spirit of adventure and that’s the terminology we actually use. If we lost that I’m not sure boredom would be the right word but all of a sudden the game isn’t exciting anymore and if it isn’t and it’s your hobby, well then you don’t play with the same fervour.

“That’s been very much part of my mind-set over the five years. Jim (Gavin) did the same thing when I was there with the lads. He always mixed it up a little bit so that a spirit of adventure remained in the group.”

Bohan doesn’t just constantly challenge his players to improve, he challenges himself just as much to find new and better ways of doing things all the time.

“Hugely,” he says. “I would do a lot of coach education around the country for a lot of clubs and development squads. I was in Salthill a couple of weeks ago and telling them about my young fella when he lost an under-10 hurling game to Ballyboden.

“I was picking up the cones and Kevin was back at the car with his chin on his hands when one of the mentors said to him, ‘Jeez, it wasn’t that bad. You only lost by a point’ and he said, ‘yeah but you don’t have to go back across the Liffey with my oul’ fella’.

“I remember thinking at the time, is that the effect that I’m actually having on kids?

“All those experiences help you to become better. In my lifetime as a coach, I’ve worked with Jim (Gavin), I’ve worked with Gerry McCaul, Niall Moyna, Tony Diamond. I’ve worked with Seán Boylan, Colm Collins. There isn’t anybody you don’t learn something from and there are gems to be picked up from everybody and I include my own management team.

“I’ve worked with Paul Gilhealy, a magnificent Vincent’s man, Ken Robinson we had in as strength and conditioning. Cliodhna O’Connor is now inwith us. Paul Casey, who played with the lads is in with us. I brought in Mark Ingle from basketball.

“I don’t care who or where I learn from, as long as I can serve the players who are under me as best I can. That’s certainly the way I’ve gone about it. Even within our own group, a lot of the ideas come from our leadership group which is exactly why they are in that position.”

Bohan has a growth mindset and is always trying to learn, but his core philosophy remains consistent. He doesn’t just want to win, he wants to win by playing entertaining, skillful football.

“Maybe it comes from my background as a PE teacher that you constantly look to see those skills performed in the arena but I also think it’s a really good way to go after the game,” he says.

“Since 2017 the score-line hasn’t been our objective even though it’s obviously part of the outcome. It’s been the quality with which we play.

“I thought the ’17 final was exciting and ’18 was a very good final between ourselves and Cork. In 2019 it was a really big disappointment for the group, amazing to say. The atmosphere in the dressing-room afterwards was muted much and all as they were delighted to have won three-in-a-row.

“There’s probably that bit more pressure on girls as they know they only have one or two showcases in the year to demonstrate what they’re capable of doing. I still look back to our lads in that All-Ireland final in the rain against Kerry (2015) and it wasn’t hugely dissimilar but ultimately they have had many other days to show their capabilities but the girls didn’t.

“I think they feel an onus that this is their opportunity to show what they’re capable of doing. It does become a factor to see if we can play this game at the highest possible level.”

Watching Limerick produce a performance for the ages to destroy Cork in the All-Ireland Hurling Final, Bohan couldn’t help but hope his own Dublin team also eventually produces their very best on the biggest day of all.

“I was envious,” he says. “I looked at that first half of hurling and thought, ‘oh my God’, that’s every coach’s dream, every manager's dream to see your players perform at the highest level.

“What was incredible about it was they looked like they were on a training field, their trickery and their skill levels, it was just phenomenal to watch, so enjoyable.

“And not because Limerick can but it’s been a quest of ours for a long time to go out and give our greatest performance on the day that matters most.

“Post 2017 where that wasn’t the motivation, post then that’s been the quest. While we’ve achieved it in parts I don’t think we given the hour that we are capable of or that we strive for.”

Maybe it’ll come in Sunday’s Final against Meath.