By John Harrington

Last Sunday’s All-Ireland SFC Final victory over Kerry was a redemptive one for the Dublin senior football management team.

Following in the foot-steps of Jim Gavin’s historic five-in-a-row was always going to be a tough task, but Dessie Farrell and his fellow coaches got off the perfect start in 2020 by winning the ‘Covid All-Ireland’.

But then two successive All-Ireland semi-final defeats in 2021 and 2022 represented significant fall in fortunes for the previously all-conquering Dubs, and coming into the 2023 campaign there wasn’t a whole lot of confidence in the city that Farrell was the man to turn things around.

Team selector, Mick Galvin, was well aware of those doubts, but he never had any himself.

“It's hard to shield yourself from it, to be honest with you,” he says. “Dropping down to Division Two was definitely tough. There was a long journey coming back from Tralee when they beat us by eight or nine points in the League down there.

“We didn't get back to Dublin until two in the morning and that was a tough journey back. Clones, getting relegated that day against Monaghan was tough.

“I don't think we ever doubted ourselves. We certainly didn't doubt the team. We knew what they had. We knew then with the likes of Stephen, Paul, and Jack back it was going to give us a huge lift.

“Dessie's leadership through that whole thing was just top-class, to be honest with you. He took a lot of flak himself as he does and he shielded the team from it and the results were there to be seen yesterday.”

Galvin and Farrell go back a long way, winning both club and county All-Ireland titles together with Na Fianna and Dublin.

Galvin couldn’t help but feel protective of his friend when Farrell was in the cross-hairs of criticism, and so proving the doubters wrong this year made the All-Ireland win over Kerry all the more satisfying.

“Ah yeah, absolutely, you hear the noises around the place,” says Galvin. “You're not human if you don't. We have to be big enough and bold enough, and it was a tough job for him to take on.

“You know, you're carrying on a legacy. And in a strange way the two defeats have made this one more special. And you could see that on the field yesterday, the emotion.

“I wouldn't be hugely emotional over football over the years but Sunday there were tears running down my face. I'm not sure the reasons why, but I think the defeats definitely made us stronger.

“To say that about a team that's won six All-Irelands probably sounds a little bit, I'm not sure what the word is, but definitely there was a bond between that group with the older guys coming back.

“We were in Portugal in April and we just took off after that, to be honest with you.”

The return of Stephen Cluxton, Paul Mannion, and Jack McCaffrey to the Dublin panel this year played a huge part in their All-Ireland success, with all three producing very influential displays in the Final itself.

Mannion kicked five points in a man of the match performance, Cluxton had 100 per cent accuracy with his kick-outs and landed two long-range frees, and McCaffrey gave the team huge energy after his second-half introduction.

How did the Dublin management team persuade the trio to return to the fold? According to Galvin, it’s actually team-captain, James McCarthy, who deserves the bulk of the credit.

“I'd say it probably might have been James McCarthy's wedding in December in Luttrelstown,” he says.

“All the old lads were there, everybody. There was a sprinking of the old and the new and I think that was the night that probably that whole plan came in place.

“I'd say there was a bit of emotion at the wedding, it certainly was fertile ground. There was nothing definitive but you could see the conversations and the connection again with the likes of Stephen being back around the group. I think it probably just grew from there.

“You could sense it and you could feel it. There was a special atmosphere around the whole day and night. You'd look over and see these guys in company again and you could just sense something.”

Did Stephen Cluxton come back as the same player he was before his ‘retirement’ at the end of the 2020 season, or did he come back with an attitude of having a bit more fun with it?

“No,” says Galvin. “No, no, no. Oh Jaysus, no. No. But I think he did have a bit of fun. He came the same Stephen as he left, setting the standards around the place, that didn't change.

“But if he was to be honest and if I was to be honest I think he has enjoyed it. Really, really enjoyed it.

“For the younger guys in the dressing-room to have Stephen Cluxton is just amazing. He lifted the whole place as did Jack and as did Paul. But Stephen elevates it a little bit higher than most.”

Mick Fitzsimons, just like Cluxton and James McCarthy, won his ninth All-Ireland medal on Sunday and also had a big game, holding Kerry danger-man David Clifford to two points from play.

There was considerable speculation before the match as to which Dublin defender would shadow Clifford, but as far as the Dublin management were concerned it was always going to be Fitzsimons.

“He was the first guy to put his hand up,” says Galvin. “And we'd listen to players. We make decisions on who we'd like on match-ups and often we'd consult the players and Mick Fitz put his hand up straight away and said 'I have this one'.

“Somehow he's never got goal chances against Mick which is hugely important. Listen, Clifford is going to score.

“His first score from play, Mick was all over him and yet he still got a shot away into the hill. But, no, Mick is just an amazing, amazing man. He wanted Clifford from Day One, and that could have backfired. It's a brave thing to do, put your hand up and say you want to mark probably the best we've ever seen.

“The week before his head was stuck in the laptop matching Clifford's movement. Then he'd go out on the pitch and he's pulling guys over to him and replicating it at the end of training saying this is what Clifford does, I want you to do it for me.

“So, for the last two or three weeks the homework was done. And sometimes it backfires on the day but the detail was there. The devil was in the detail and Mick was ready to go. And, touch wood, he got the performance.”

So will we see any of Dublin’s nine-medal winning heroes back in 2024, or will Fitzsimons, Cluxton, and McCarthy decide to go out on this high?

"I don't know,” says Galvin. “I have no idea. For someone like James, you just don't know. The man could keep playing. He is a phenomenal athlete. I suspect it is never going to get any better than that Sunday.

“Nine All-Irelands. Mention the word 10 to some of them. I'm not sure how that rocks their boat but yesterday seemed like the culmination of them climbing back up to the top of the mountain.

“Getting up there felt really good so I'm not sure if there is more in any of the group.”