LESS than a month after indicating Dublin’s All-Ireland triumph might signal the perfect end to a stellar county career, Dean Rock could yet have a part to play in sky blue as he weighs up his inter-county future.
Rock came off the bench to edge Dessie Farrell’s men over the line against Kerry, splitting the Hill 16 uprights to move the Dubs two points clear six minutes into added time.
The 33-year-old lapped up every minute of the post-match celebrations with then fiancé Niamh McEvoy – they married on August 11 – and daughter Sadie, before admitting it “probably could be my last act playing for Dublin, so it’s certainly a nice way to go out”.
However, as the dust settles on a hectic few weeks, Rock suggested he was warming to the idea of a possible return, with that decision to be considered in the months to come.
“There’s obviously a huge amount of emotion after the game, I think everyone could see that,” said the Ballymun forward, speaking at the Budweiser Combine event.
“We put a huge amount into this year. It was certainly an All-Ireland that we really wanted to win this year and put everything into it, we probably won it and attached a lot of emotion to it. After the game they’re the kind of conversations that pop up, around retirement, will I go again and stuff like that.
“But as it kind of settles down a little bit, my own plans pretty much are just to go back to the club now and see what happens over the next couple of weeks, try and win on Saturday [against Templeogue] and keep the championship going for ourselves, then just weigh things up as the year goes on, have conversations with those you trust most, and then just make a decision on it.
“We’re obviously the other side of 30 now, a lot of us, and this year took a lot out of a lot of players because we put so much time and effort into it. It’s certainly something I physically think I can do again, go to the well again, it’s just the mental side of it and then your family life and everything else.
“We won’t make any decisions yet. It’s a quick season nowadays, it’s only six months or thereabouts really, so it probably does give you the opportunity to play a little bit longer. But we’ll see.”
