Dublin and Donegal could bring back memories of summer

Dublin v Donegal, Croke Park, 7pm

Back to the scene, then. The flipside of Dublin’s advantage in having Croke Park as a home venue is that every little once in a while they get dragged back by the ear in early spring to relive whatever ills befell them the previous autumn.

The price of being the Dubs is that when you get knocked out of the championship, it’s invariably in the match of the year. And so we go back, a ravenous public looking to knock one last lash out of it.

Appetiser

Dublin v Donegal (7.0pm) under lights in the cool of a February Saturday night. Croke Park are expecting something in the neighbourhood of 25,000 through the stiles, with the not-unappealing

Walsh Cup

final between Dublin and Galway (5.0pm) down as appetiser. Sure what else would you be doing?

Jim Gavin’s men land back at headquarters with their cough ever so gently softened. For the first time since he took the job, Dublin have lost the first game of the league. Nothing to panic about, of course, but after tonight there’s a three week gap to the next game and you don’t want it filled with the mood music of the table-bottom blues. Especially when that next game is a trip to Killarney.

For Donegal, it’s return to the place where they pulled off arguably their greatest coup. In their All-Ireland year they were a tsunami that obliterated all before them. Last year’s hijack of Dublin’s dreams was more of a gentle mistral that fooled Gavin’s side into thinking they had no worries until it was too late. You can do that only once and they chose their moment to the minute.

There's a different name above the door now for Donegal but Rory Gallagher got the engines started with a rollicking second half against Derry last week.

Usual smirk

They’ll come to Croke Park with the usual smirk, not overtly worried about the existential ins and outs of what it all means this early in the year. If they fancy giving Dublin a game, they might just. You wouldn’t know with the hoors.

All we know for certain is that Dublin-watchers will keep a gimlet eye on what’s happening just behind their midfield. We can probably take it that the centre of their defence will be held as though it was a castle wall. The stable door will be the subject of a thorough bolting or the poor put-upon Dub will want to know the reason why.

Early league fare it may well be. But August’s ghosts lend it frisson enough to poke at your curiosity.