Fitting to see sons of the '70s reclaiming Sam

ON GAELIC GAMES:YOU COULD say history happened in a flash, but it felt like an eternity as Stephen Cluxton walked up from his goal to address the free that would win the most exciting All-Ireland final that many people can remember.

The Dublin goalkeeper’s assumption of place-kicking duties for long-distance kicks arose from his practice of using the goalposts as guides when practising the direction of his kick-outs. It was an irony that on the day when his kick-outs were ransacked by Kerry, he should pop up to steer the winning point over the bar.

A match is over in 70 minutes and when it comes to All-Ireland finals, that time goes quickly but the ramifications can be so enormous. Dublin had been renowned for not being able to survive the febrile conclusion to red-hot championship matches and yet they stripped away a four-point lead in the space of minutes.

Just after a few weeks of frank talking in Dublin about how the county wasn’t fit to be considered as a real rival – as opposed to an excitable sparring partner – for Kerry, along comes one of those matches, which will surely fuel the old Dublin-Kerry industry for a further few decades; after all it took the hype nearly the entirety of 34 years and nine matches of Dublin coming up short to fade.

Kerry must be fed up with their role in these matches. Three of their past five final defeats, going back the 29 years to the most famous of all – the de-railing of their five-in-a-row ambitions by Offaly – have been by just one point.

Like 1982, last Sunday will have the unmistakeable presence of one that got away. Kerry had been on their way to a 37th title with just seven minutes left on the clock.

Symbolically, Kerry had up until last weekend been beaten only twice this year – on both occasions in the league and each time by a single point after playing Cork and Dublin, counties that have succeeded them as All-Ireland champions since 2009.

Much play was made of that record but it overlooked that Dublin had lost just once, also by a point but in the league final when they had to play Cork for the last quarter without four of last Sunday’s starting forwards.

The sense of tradition in the GAA was evident in the final with three children of the 1970s team playing for Dublin. Sadly for Kerry, the sons of the 1970s they would have loved to call on were David Moran, son of eight-time All-Ireland medallist Denis, who was watching the last scenes of a season he been forced to miss because of the ubiquitous and dreaded cruciate injury and Seán Walsh’s young lad Tommy, who is plying his trade in the AFL.

Even the Dublin management team echoed the past and that’s not just because of the presence of David Hickey as a selector although his back-to-the-’70s inability to comprehend why any side should beat Dublin has helped recreate the confidence so tangibly lacking in the county for much of the intervening years.

The appointment of manager Pat Gilroy was recommended by a sub-committee chaired by Pat O’Neill, another 1970s icon and the previous manager to bring home the Sam Maguire, whose conviction was based on his experience of Gilroy as an impressive and intelligent member of the 1995 panel.

Gilroy’s club St Vincent’s has also had such a seminal role in all of Dublin’s modern All-Irelands, with the possible exception of ’95 (although the management then freely accepted they had been shaped by the Heffernan era) it was almost inevitable it would again feature when the county regained the highest ground.

It’s only three years since Gilroy as a player won an All-Ireland club medal with Vincent’s and it was no surprise he took with him from that success veteran coach Mickey Whelan, for whom Sunday must have been a definition of fulfilment.

A player on the 1963 team which won the All-Ireland, Whelan had also managed Dublin in the aftermath of the ’95 victory and the fusion of his strong views on how the game should be played with an experienced group who had just at long last achieved their goals was not a success.

Nonetheless the abuse he took from what might loosely be termed “supporters” after a league defeat by Offaly in November 1997 was a disgrace and prompted him to resign.

Now in his 70s, Whelan’s status as a coaching guru has been substantiated over so many years it scarcely needs outings at conferences and seminars to underline the point but his enthusiasm and curiosity for and about innovation has made a major contribution to the turnaround in the team’s fortunes.

Lastly, but very significantly, Paddy O’Donoghue was on the Kilmacud Crokes team of the mid-1990s, which despite the coincidence of its All-Ireland success with Dublin’s in 1995 didn’t have anyone on the county team.

By last Sunday the ongoing reorientation of football in Dublin to include the southside could be seen with six of the back eight from Kilmacud, Ballyboden and Cuala, including what goalscorer Kevin McManamon (himself from southside club St Jude’s) – in his exuberant parody of Damien Dempsey – described as “the poshest full-back line in the world” (Mick Fitzsimons, Rory O’Carroll and Cian O’Sullivan).

The revolution began in the 1970s and, because it was televised, football and the GAA came into the lives of children on the southside who previously would have found it possible to grow up without interfacing with Gaelic games at all.

On Monday clubs all over the city cancelled training to allow kids go into Merrion Square and for the first time in many of their lives watch a Dublin team bring the All-Ireland onto the streets of the capital. And as they looked on they felt the sense of being part of a larger community, which had achieved something remarkable – something that they could feel part of – and the sense of belonging.

Just like any other county. Pat Gilroy, take a bow.