Selector Mick Bohan, Ted Furman, and manager Jim Gavin celebrate after Dublin's All Ireland Under 21 win in 2010.
By Cian O'Connell
"He's just unwavering in his approach and I have not met anybody in Dublin or anywhere else who has brought the approach he's brought," Dublin Ladies manager Mick Bohan discussed Jim Gavin's impact on Tuesday afternoon.
Speaking before the news that Gavin will remain in charge of Dublin until 2021 was announced Bohan highlighted the detailed way the Round Towers clubman looks after the senior team in the capital.
Bohan has been part of Gavin's backroom team previously so knows all about his methods. When asked to compare his current job with Gavin's role Bohan offered an interesting response. "Oh it's completely different," Bohan says. "And I would say to you still, I happen to managing the women's team, but my forte is coaching and I don't pretend to be anything else.
"But obviously I don't have the same demands, I don't have to deal with the same number of things that he has to deal with, purely because people aren't looking for that insight, it's not the same.
"Even from the point of fundraising, and we do our own fundraising, and I know Jim has everyone in situ, he has people at all different levels, but he manages the managers of those. It's almost like running a mini-company. I don't know he does it, I really don't."
Did Bohan envisage this sustained burst of Dublin dominance coming at the turn of the decade? "I can't necessarily say I did see it coming," Bohan replies. "I look back to 2010, that was my first year of involvement with the adult team. I would have been eight years prior to that with development squads. |2010 was my first with the adult teams, 2011 I was involved with them again. 2013, with Jim.
"It's amazing when you talk to people, they say there's going to be no let up from Dublin, they're going to be here for X amount of years. And there's a couple of things that people are overlooking.
Dublin Ladies Football manager Mick Bohan pictured at the launch of the innovative online GAA learning portal LCPE.ie, which supports the introduction of Physical Education at Higher and Ordinary Level in the Leaving Certificate Examination.
"Like, if you look at the leadership qualities of people like Paul Flynn, Stephen Cluxton, Jonny Cooper, James McCarthy, Dean Rock, they're all coming to that stage of their career, obviously Dean and Jonny are probably a year or two younger, but there's a group of seven or eight, Eoghan O'Gara too, who probably at the end of next year will be gone.
"In 16 years that I'm involved in Dublin football, between development squads, minor, U-21, seniors, nobody I have come across has the drive or the systematic approach that he brings. It's just incredible. And he never wavers."
How Gavin remains so cool and composed is what impresses Bohan most of all. "There's never....like, I go through...and I try to control it better now, massive lows when things haven't gone well and there's a serious high then when it goes well," Bohan adds.
"He's just unwavering in his approach and I have not met anybody in Dublin or anywhere else who has brought the approach he's brought."
Bohan doesn't intend to be Gavin's replacement when he steps away from the inter-county arena. "Not a chance, not a chance," Bohan answers. "Mark these words. I'll tell you one thing lads, at that level, not a chance. I could not do it.
"I don't know how he does it. I still look back to the times when (I was involved with him). I'd look at the email in the morning and see '2.38' and then you'd respond and then the email would be back within half an hour. And you'd thinking, 'When does he sleep? Where does the sleep process fit in?'
Gavin remains driven to succeed for Dublin and will stay on the beat until the end of the 2021 Championship.
