Dublin manager Jim Gavin, right, and forwards coach Jason Sherlock during the Allianz Football League Division 1 Round 6 match between Dublin and Tyrone at Croke Park in Dublin.
By John Harrington
Dublin manager Jim Gavin made it quite clear he was hugely disappointed by his team’s performance after Saturday night’s Allianz Football League Division 1 defeat to Tyrone at Croke Park.
Even though his team had a numerical advantage for the final 25 minutes of the match they struggled to play with any sort of fluency and were deservedly beaten by a well-drilled Tyrone outfit.
“That level of performance from the Dublin players certainly is not good enough, at this level you’ll be found out. Tyrone were fully deserved winners tonight,” said Gavin after the match.
“Our passing was certainly off in many phases of play. Our shot selection was very poor. Against a quality side like Tyrone they are going to punish you at the far end and they got some great scores and as I said, fully deserved winners.
“We have nine weeks now to run to championship, you take every game on its merits, you want to do well in every game you play in the league because they are quality games.
“But, certainly, a performance like that will certainly give the management team a lot to reflect on and certainly give the Dublin players a lot to reflect on because that just isn’t good enough.”
Gavin rejected the suggestion that his team’s fitness is not as sharp now as it would have been at this stage of the League in previous seasons.
“No, we’re on track for our plan and what we want from this season. We’ve taken every…we don’t just shoehorn cut, copy and paste our plan from one season to the next, we look at our priorities and we’ll adapt accordingly.
“So we’re exactly where we want to be, we’re on target, in terms of fitness certainly fitness didn’t lose us that game today, just a better quality side.
“Obviously Tyrone are smarting from last year and they looked really up for tonight’s game and played some outstanding football.
“We can have absolutely no complaints, I thought it was a very polished performance by Tyrone.”
Cormac Costello of Dublin is tended to by medical staff before being taken off late in the first half with an injury during the Allianz Football League Division 1 Round 6 match between Dublin and Tyrone at Croke Park in Dublin.
A miserable night for Dublin was made worse by injuries to John Small, Cormac Costello, and Paddy Andrews.
Gavin was hopeful afterwards that Costello’s injury won’t sideline him for long, but couldn’t say for sure just how serious the three injuries were.
“It (Costello’s injury) doesn't look too serious to be honest, from speaking to Cormac. So that's all I'll say.
“I'm always hesitant in the immediacy of a game, just need to let it rest and see what the medics say.
“We'll just need to assess...our medical protocols are we give them 48 hours to let them be reassessed there.
“But Paddy was taken to hospital with a head injury so we'll just have to wait and see what comes from the hospital.”
This defeat ended Dublin’s chances of reaching the Allianz Football League Final, but Gavin made it clear he still expects a response from his players when they play Cavan in their final match of the competition next weekend.
“We have another game against Cavan next week, we have the club championships where we’ll be looking closely at guys and then after that we’ll have one or two weeks to get ready for the championship.
“That performance will obviously not help the players that were out on the pitch, that’s for sure.”
