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Paddy Quinn's interesting football tale

Tyrone native Paddy Quinn played for Dublin in the 2013 Allianz Football League.

Tyrone native Paddy Quinn played for Dublin in the 2013 Allianz Football League.

By Cian O'Connell

Paddy Quinn laughs about how it all unfolded. The Tyrone native played in Jim Gavin’s first Allianz League game as Dublin manager against Cork with a familiar cast of names involved.

This weekend Stephen Cluxton, Jonny Cooper, Darren Daly, Cian O’Sullivan, Jack McCaffrey, Michael Darragh MacAuley, Paul Mannion, Paul Flynn, Paddy Andrews, and Bernard Brogan, who all participated in the Cork match, could see action at the Jones Road venue.

Quinn, though, was part of the Dublin panel that spring and relished being involved after some prominent campaigns with Na Fianna in the County Championship.

“I moved to Dublin for work reasons in 2008,” Quinn explains. “For the first year I travelled up and down to play for my home club Derrylaughan Kevin Barrys up in Tyrone.

“Just with the year of travelling up and down it got a bit too much, I was going up and down for training so I transferred down to Na Fianna for the 2009 season.

“I played with Na Fianna for maybe four or five years prior to that Dublin call up and stayed playing with Na Fianna until 2016. For the past two years I went back to the club in Tyrone, this will definitely be my last year.”

Was Quinn surprised to be offered an opportunity on the inter-county stage with Dublin? “Yeah, it was Jim Gavin's first campaign so in October 2012 he was appointed after Pat Gilroy left when Dublin were beaten by Mayo that year in the All Ireland semi-final,” Quinn recalls.

“Jim came in, he was just picking a brand new panel so it was a surprise in one way. I suppose I knew I had been playing good stuff in the League in Dublin, but you just don't know if people are taking notice of you or not. I was 31 at the time so you do think the boat has sailed.

“Certainly from being a Tyrone man you don't know if the Dublin manager would be considering you or the Tyrone manager considering you. I was just getting the head down playing club football, playing decent enough so it was a surprise definitely when the call came in, but you go with it.”

Gavin experimented in the O’Byrne Cup with Quinn retaining his place in the starting XV for the League opener against Cork at Croke Park. “I started that day, I came on as a sub against Kerry down in Killarney, I played against Mayo the following week,” Quinn states.

Paddy Quinn played for Dublin in the 2013 O'Byrne Cup Final against Kildare at Parnell Park.

Paddy Quinn played for Dublin in the 2013 O'Byrne Cup Final against Kildare at Parnell Park.

“After that I was on the panel, but I didn't come on. I remember being on the bench against Tyrone in the League that year. I spent the whole evening warming up, I would have loved to come on in that game, but that is the way it worked out.

“Then just before the Championship Jim cut the panel, it was the last cut. Initially he started off with 50 odd players and then he cut it down to maybe 34 for the Championship panel.

“I was let go at that stage so you look back and say if I had been able to hang in for an extra while longer I might have got an All Ireland medal out of it, but it still was a great experience for me, the whole thing.”

Gavin’s diligent work with Dublin is reflected in his remarkable Championship record of 35 wins, two draws, and one loss in 38 matches. Did Quinn envisage Dublin becoming so successful? “I knew it was an extremely strong Dublin panel and group of players that were there,” Quinn replies.

“You always knew they were going to be there or thereabouts in the Championship. Would you have predicted that they would be now going for four in a row and five in the last six? That was a big ask, but Jim had that vision at the start.

“Certainly he would have been thinking multiple All Irelands at the very start and with the quality of players coming through they'd obviously be aiming to win Sam every time.

“I suppose the complete dominance Dublin went on to have is a little bit surprising, but the management team and the guys Jim has it is no surprise what he has been able to create there.

“He has really built on the work Pat Gilroy did in those couple of years changing the mentality of the Dublin footballer. Jim has really taken that to the next level, it is exceptional what he has been able to do.”

Foundations were established, a culture created so Dublin have remained admirably consistent under Gavin’s shrewd guidance. “That is exactly it, the secret to Jim's success really is probably to have the players not thinking about all the stuff outside,” Quinn states.

“That doesn't help them or their game. He is able to get the players mindset not to play the occasion just to play the game in front of them. You always hear talk about the process, but that is what it is like inside in that camp - sticking to the process, not being overawed with anything you are presented with.

Paddy Quinn in action for London in the 2005 Connacht SFC against Roscommon.

Paddy Quinn in action for London in the 2005 Connacht SFC against Roscommon.

“Dublin go through the same routine on Sunday as they have done for the past four or five years. They'd go through the same routine for an All Ireland Final as they would do for an O'Byrne Cup match. Each game is treated exactly the same, that is the culture.

“You have no fear about them not turning up on the day, it is Tyrone who have to go out to raise their game, to show something they haven't. Dublin will just perform the way they always perform.”

Cooper and Eoin Murchan bring a respected Na Fianna presence to the Dublin defence with Quinn a former colleague of both players. There is no doubting Cooper’s relevance to the sky blue team, while Murchan’s emergence has been notable.

“Jonny is a very good friend of mine and Murch I would know very well,” Quinn says. “I played four seasons with Murch with the seniors, he is a great bit of stuff.

“I knew through the scene that he would go far. The thing that sets him apart is his attitude and mentality, nothing will faze him at all. He is small in stature, but he puts himself about.”

Murchan has a significant amount of skill to blend with his speed according to Quinn. “Exactly, people mightn't have seen that side to him either,” Quinn admits.

“He would have no bother going up the field kicking a score or putting one in the back of the net. Murch can do all of that for you. He will do whatever job Jim asks him to do.

“On Sunday if he has to mark Niall Sludden, he probably will, he did it the last day and he will do it not a bother on him. If he is playing in front of seven people or 80,000 he will play the way he plays. He is a great bit of stuff, I'd say he is a manager's dream.

“He had problems with injury for a couple of years, he had muscle injuries from time to time, that is the only little thing which held him back. He missed an Under 21 campaign with Dublin, but he is a great lad, a brilliant, brilliant footballer. He will be on the Dublin team for years to come.”

Though the stint with Dublin was brief Quinn thoroughly enjoyed the adventure. Nine years before lining out for Dublin, Quinn had played against them for London in the 2004 Championship.

“Truth be told I wouldn't have been a standout underage player even in my own club, but I had a bit of a growth spurt when I was 18 or 19, put on a few centimetres and got a bit stronger,” Quinn, who never featured for Tyrone at underage level, remarks.

The promising Eoin Murchan has enjoyed a productive campaign for Dublin.

The promising Eoin Murchan has enjoyed a productive campaign for Dublin.

“I played a couple of years with my club, but then moved to London to do my accountancy exams. I was in my early 20s and played for London for a couple of years. The first year I played under John McParland and the second year was under Noel Dunning, he was a good fella.”

London came within a whisker of causing a seismic shock against Roscommon in 2005. “In the second year we were beaten by Roscommon by a point in Ruislip, we really should have beaten them,” Quinn adds.

“Johnny Niblock hit the crossbar with the last kick. That was a great time even though we took some hammerings along the way. I played against Dublin actually in the Championship in 2004 which is a bit surreal looking back on it and that time really helped me a lot as a footballer.

“It gave me the confidence to play at that level and I improved a lot when I came back when I subsequently moved to Dublin.

“A lot of players from that London team went on to play for their counties back at home. Charlie Harrison and Brendan Egan in Sligo, McGonigley with Donegal, a good few lads, it was a good group of lads.”

Those days in the English capital also re-affirmed the importance and breadth of the GAA community. “I travelled a good bit I suppose spending a year in Australia and time in America, anywhere you go the GAA is always the first thing you gravitate towards,” Quinn acknowledges.

“That community and you have volunteers everywhere. London is no different. I used to travel long distances to get to training in Ruislip and I remember one time Stevie O'Neill from Tyrone came over to train with us for a while and he couldn't believe the sacrifices some lads were making.

“Mickey Harte actually came over to train us once or twice, he said he took a lot of positivity from it and brought it back into the Tyrone set-up seeing the sacrifices the London lads were making.

“We weren't at that level obviously, but it just shows you the GAA is so important to people everywhere, especially when you go abroad it definitely is such a great thing to have to tap into.”

While Quinn reckons 2018 will be his last campaign for Derrylaughan Kevin Barrys, who are back in the senior ranks in Tyrone, Sunday’s Croke Park decider carries intrigue. “It is always interesting and it is a few times now in the last few years that Tyrone and Dublin have played,” Quinn says.

“Every time it is one of those matches that is a bit strange for me looking in, but I'm a Tyrone man first and foremost so I will be in the Tyrone colours on Sunday anyway.”

Quinn wore the Dublin jersey too achieving a sense of satisfaction and pride, but home is always where the heart is.