NOTHING compared to this for Dublin.
The sweet sounds of the late Sinead O’Connor’s version of ‘Dublin’s Fair City’ was the fitting mood music as the Dubs celebrated bouncing back from being written off and reclaiming Sam Maguire after two barren years and a relegation.
There were pints of porter and beaming smiles all round after a win that meant so much to the Dubs and for many of them, including veterans James McCarthy, Dean Rock and Brian Fenton, it was the sweetest win of them all.
It was close. They might have lost it and at one stage of the second half when Paudie Clifford put daylight between these rivals, it looked like they would. But they dug in and forced the win that, in the final reckoning, they deserved.
“I think the overriding emotion for me is just one of happiness and joy,” said manager Dessie Farrell.
“It’s every cliché under the sun that you throw out now at this time.
“It’s definitely a surreal feeling, for sure. On a personal level, I’m delighted for the players. They are some group of men, none more so than the fella sitting beside me (Dublin skipper James McCarthy).
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"For those lads it’s special. Delighted for the young lads who have come into the group over the last two years. Their first big occasion. It’s great for them and their families.
“Just on the whole, it’s all about the players, it always has been. Delighted for each and every one of them.”
Farrell has borne the brunt of a lot of criticism over the past two seasons. The aura of invincibility had gone – Mayo beat his team in 2021, Kerry did the same last year and the Dubs began this season in Division Two.
Paul Geaney’s goal meant that Kerry led at the break despite Dublin dominating the opening half so the Dubs had to answer questions about their character, composure and class.
“It (the goal) was a bit of a sucker punch but to be honest,” said Farrell.
“We were happy enough with where we were at at half-time. Some of the team defence was brilliant.
“We probably weren’t far enough in front. It was that kind of day. Difficult for forwards. In terms of how we were minimising their attacking effort, really, really happy with that. I just thought in the second half we turned the screw a little bit. Some adjustments with certain things up front. I was very happy with the position we were in. It was just a case of throwing everything at it in the second half.”
Skipper McCarthy accepted the Sam Maguire from GAA President Larry McCarthy. It was his ninth All-Ireland win, a record he now shares with team-mates Michael Fitzsimons, who did brilliantly to keep shackles on David Clifford, and Stephen Cluxton, the oldest player ever to win an All-Ireland medal at the age of 41.
“He (Cluxton) is a happy man,” said Farrell.
“Just to be away and to come back again… And they say there’s no such thing as fairytale endings in sport. It was a little bit like a dream come true to be sure.”
Cluxton returned to the inter-county fray after sitting out two seasons as did Paul Mannion, Dublin’s best forward who finished with five points (four from play) and Jack McCaffrey who added energy and experience to the defence when he was introduced in the second half.
“The conditions were always going to make that difficult, but we kept at it and persevered and showed the character that we knew was in the group,” Farrell added.
“We spoke about that a lot this year about character and what it actually means. We identified the characteristics and the traits that were going to be really important to us and we hammered in on those. At the end of the day, it was that type of character that was shown when it mattered most.”
