By John Harrington

Dublin selector Declan Darcy hopes Jack McCaffrey and Rory O’Carroll will return to the county’s football panel in the future.

The defensive duo were All-Stars in 2015 with McCaffrey also voted the Footballer of the Year, but both decided to opt out of the panel for 2016.

O’Carroll went to New Zealand for travel and work, while McCaffrey undertook volunteer work in Africa to further his medical studies.

Darcy says there were no hard feelings among the Dublin management for their decision to leave, and hopes to see them both back in the sky blue soon.

“People have changed, the dynamic has changed and kids want to go away,” says Darcy. “That’s a life-balance piece and young kids want to do that. To be honest with you, you can’t hold a stick over them – no-one begrudges them.

“Obviously we were disappointed because they were big players, All-Star and Player of the Year.

“We’d love to have them but if they want to go that’s their decision but we have to back them because they were part of the group and hopefully maybe they will be part of the group in the future.”

Such are the demands of inter-county football nowadays, that Darcy expects more and more players to take a year out from the game or retire at a relatively young age.

“Absolutely, because the problem with the GAA games is there is so much expected and the free time and a county player; his time is narrowing and narrowing down.

“You’d wonder where is that balance for that enjoyment as well, so it is very tight now.

“You can see why they say ‘I’ve just had enough if this now, I just want to go.’ We can totally understand it, and I think it’s going to happen more. GAA teams will have to be…I mean Jamie Clarke decided to head off and I think there’s going to be a lot more of that within groups.”

It was logical to expect that the departure of two All-Stars would weaken Dublin defensively this year, but so far at least they’ve managed just fine without O’Carroll and McCaffrey.

John Small and Davy Byrne have come into the team and played confidently in a solid defensive unit. Darcy admits there were no guarantees it would all work out so well.

“You can’t say for sure, but at the same time you put them in a position and they’ve done exceptionally well,” he says. “We can’t control that, if guys want to go away that’s literally fine.

“Football isn’t life or death at the end of the day so if they want to go that’s 100%, they have to go. It gives an opportunity then for other guys to play and they were more than happy to take that opportunity and have done really well.

“We can’t do any more than that, obviously we’d love to have the lads, we can’t...that’s the dynamic that’s within the group so the players now that are there have to step up and they’ve done well. So far they’ve done well.”

Dublin have proven this year that their collective effort and resolve is arguably their greatest strength, regardless of who wears the jersey.

They simply refused to be beaten by Kerry in the All-Ireland semi-final, and showed great character to fight their way back into the match after trailing by five points at half-time.

“I think you just let it (the team’s character) evolve as you develop as a group through the experiences that we've had in other matches,” says Darcy.

“We talk about them as a group. We go through them roller-coaster rides that this team has been through, ups and downs. And then as individual players as well, they've had their bad moments, they've had their good moments.

“So all them put together and if you let it evolve, not force it, let it evolve within the group, let it build and build. You would be hoping when the test does come that they'll trust themselves and believe in what they've gone through previously, that they'll get them across the line when they're asked the really hard questions like against Kerry.

“They were asked seriously hard questions, they could have easily just said 'today's not the day'. We have our All-Ireland from last year but they didn't.”

Dublin have more than just attitude, they have options. The strength of their subs bench consistently allows them to burn off teams down the home straight.

They left it later than they usually do against Kerry in the semi-final, but there’s no doubt the quality and freshness their replacements brought to bear on the contest made a vital impact.

“I think we have a dynamic with our subs,” says Darcy. “We have fellas who are unlucky not to be making the games, it’s very tough, so it’s the dynamic of the subs.

“But the group as well are at their right age, we have a lot of fit and strong players at their max now so they can sustain...how many players can sustain what it is now, 78 minutes or 80 minutes nearly in Croke Park on a big pitch?

“How many players will last the pace? Maybe we’re lucky enough that we have more of them players who are able to sustain that pace for 80 minutes as opposed to fellahs having to leave the pitch, important players leaving after 50 or 60 minutes.

“Like Darran O’Sullivan and Kieran Donaghy left the pitch the last day, big, big players for Kerry, and they weren’t on the pitch when they were needed the most.”