COMMENT: The Dubs are top of the Hill

Opinion: Vinnie Murphy         

WHAT a team and group of role models this Dublin team are. They now stand proudly on top of the hill that is Dublin football after the win over Mayo to secure the double and their fourth title in six years. 

Great credit must also go to the backroom team as I feel that the team peaked against Kerry in the semi-final as the last two performances when judged on their own standards were below par. 

Anybody that has played at that level will tell you that once you peak it’s nearly impossible to perform. In the two games the Dubs battled for every ball, it was heroic stuff really. 

Mayo contributed to their own downfall yet again as their lack of natural scoring forwards was the difference. Contrast this with Cormac Costello’s cameo in scoring three points from three touches when introduced as a sub. 

Cormac is the heir apparent to Bernard Brogan. He is a scoring machine and while injury has curtailed his career thus far, if he gets a run at it we will have another strike forward for the next 8-10 years. 

Speaking of Brogan, his point on his introduction again underlined his class. He didn’t have the best of years and was quiet in the drawn game and offered up a point as a sub in the second game but he still has an awful lot to offer the Dubs even in a reduced capacity as a sub. It’s worth noting that he scored the same amount from play over the two games as Cillian O’Connor and Aidan O’Shea.  

Where to for Mayo? They will come back as they always do. However, they really must learn that for all their energy, tactics and formations that they come up with, this is only to mask their perennial problem of a lack of scoring forwards. Mayo has had this problem for as long as I can recall. 

Mayo and other commentators big up the likes of Aidan O’Shea and especially Cillian O’Connor as the two great hopes of Mayo football. These two players are good but not great. They are secondary players and Mayo need a forward like Brogan or a Gooch to show (shoot) the way. 

It’s worth noting that these two players have NEVER performed on the big stage for Mayo. This is Mayo’s terminal problem that goes to the heart of their woes. They are a team of big chiefs but not enough Indians. 

This Mayo team remind me in many ways of the Dubs’ team in the ‘90s who suffered from similar issues to Mayo, losing two finals, a semi-final along with the four-game saga with Meath in the early ‘90s before falling over the line in 1995.

While we had better forwards than Mayo it took a leap of faith from the management team to change the way we did things. In came a certain Jim Gavin (perhaps the best Indian of all) and Jason Sherlock, a forward who did things differently to any other forward before. 

Mayo needs to look outside the box on the forwards side or they will keep coming up short. They have the best defence in the game, with Lee Keegan, Keith Higgins and Colm Boyle as good defenders as there has ever been. 

In fairness, Mayo have always produced class defenders and that backbone has got them to eight finals (including two replays) since 1989. 

For the record Dublin have played in seven finals in that time and won five. Forwards win matches.

Finally, a word about Stephen Cluxton. A player that is the most analysed and studied GAA player in history, he gave a masterclass on restarts and is the driving force of this team. He is the big  chief. It is fitting that he entered the record books as the only captain to lift Sam three times. He is an all-time great who will be spoken about in the way only Heffo and maybe Brian Mullins were previously.

Dublin people are so proud of the team and ex-players all bow at the altar of their success. Long may it continue. COYBIB.

•Vinnie Murphy won an All-Ireland senior medal for Dublin in 1995.