Barney Rock
By John Harrington
Dublin GAA legend, Barney Rock, believes the current Dublin team are the greatest the County has ever produced.
The team of the 1970s that won three All-Irelands in four years were long regarded as finest to ever come from the capital, but Rock believes the newly crowned three-in-a-row champions have now surpassed them.
“You have to say that it leaves them in a fantastic place,” said Rock, who won an All-Ireland title with Dublin in 1983.
“They are the best Dublin team ever and I am not putting down the team of the 70s. That 70’s team probably started this whole thing off.
“David Hickey claimed in ‘13 that this team would be Dublin’s greatest. At that stage, they had beaten Kerry and Mayo and he would have seen more of them because he was involved with the set-up and he predicted it.
“Going forward it is a fantastic spell for these players and if you look at it Jim Gavin has moved the team around this year, introduced some young fellows but it will be important that the spine of the team – the fellows approaching their 30s - stick in there.
“I have no doubt that they will because this is a great thing to be involved in, they all get on well together, there is no badness there. From that point of view, they will stick together.”
Dublin v Mayo - GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Final
Rock took great satisfaction from watching his son Dean land the winning free for Dublin in the dying minutes of injury-time.
Rock Snr was renowned for his free-taking in his own playing days also, and trained Dean in the art from a young age.
“He is trained to kick it and he was being brought up he was trained to kick all those frees and he was kicking of the ground also,” said Rock.
“It is all practice and he definitely has the nerve. That was the important one to put over, it was a shot to win it and he stood up and put it away well.
“It was a bit like that great free of Cluxton's in 2011, except it was at the other end of the field. It was good for him to kick it over.”
Rock believes his son will have taken all the more satisfaction from kicking the late winner on Sunday because he missed a last-gasp kick in the League Final against Kerry that would have earned Dublin a replay.
“At the time he was very disappointed but as I said to him at the time he was very far out,” said Rock. “He actually struck it well but the ball just never came in.
“Maybe that was a blessing in disguise because if that had gone over, all the talk might have been of this invincible team and we might not have won the championship.”
