Six weeks ago in a pub in the Dublin mountains they were talking about Pat Gilroy coming back. Word had come from a county board meeting that the conversation with Dessie Farrell was for real, the deal already gone down.
All requests for confirmation in the six weeks since were muted, until on Wednesday lunchtime, speaking at the launch of the new Dublin football jersey for 2023, defender Lee Gannon did the honours.
“Yeah, Pat’s back in,” said Gannon, the broad smile across his face a clearly welcoming sign of what Gilroy’s presence will mean.
Gilroy is most fondly remembered for guiding Dublin to the 2011 All-Ireland title, ending a 16-year wait to bring the Sam Maguire Cup back to the capital. His reign ended somewhat unexpectedly in 2012, when he was forced to step down after four years when moving to England for work reasons.
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Even more unexpectedly, Gilroy later took charge of the Dublin hurling team, for one season, in 2018, that also ending prematurely, again for work-related reasons.
For Gilroy, who turned 51 earlier this month, the timing of his return this time is not insignificant. He was succeeded by Jim Gavin, who won back the All-Ireland in 2013 in his first season in charge, before guiding Dublin to the five-in-a-row before stepping down in 2019.
Farrell succeeded Gavin, winning the All-Ireland in his first season, before exiting at the semi-final stage in the last two years – to Mayo in 2021, and Kerry this year. Gannon suggested that Gilroy’s experience can help “push us on that extra little level” as they look to win back the All-Ireland title.
“Dessie informed us two weeks ago that Pat would be joining up with us, that’s really exciting to have another Dublin stalwart back in with us, and hopefully can just push us on that extra little level, to get that bit better and keep going forward.”
Gannon added that Gilroy’s role was not yet made clear: “No, he [Dessie] just told us that Pat would be linking up with the squad, there was no mention of what coaching capacity or mindset capacity or whatever, we don’t really know yet. But it still is very exciting though, and I’d say in a week or two we’ll find out.”
The news comes on the back of Paul Mannion and Jack McCaffrey both recommitting to the Dublin senior football panel for 2023. In August, Dublin GAA announced that Farrell would continue as the county’s senior football manager for a further two years.
Gannon, in his first full season with Dublin, played every game for the county in 2022, resulting in an All Star nomination and also a nominee as Young Footballer of the Year.
He was on the panel in 2021, only to be told his time was not yet ripe, a decision he ultimately views as a fruitful one.
“I was originally called in in 2021, in January that year, and as the year went on, I was not good enough to break into the panel, sadly.
“The fitness was the main thing for me and then obviously my football would not have been as good as the lads, the mindset would not have been as good. Everything was probably a step below and it was just trying to ... and even now and last year, I was a step below and I was really trying to bring myself on that little bit more to be able to consider myself to be a Dublin senior footballer with the lads.
“Dessie was so good to me in that sense; he was very open on why he brought me into the team and what I could add to the team and obviously I wasn’t in 2021 because I was not up to the level of it. But even going towards the start of last year he was still very personable and he talked to me about how I could get better as a player and as a person as well. Dessie was the main thing that kept my head in order to keep driving on, so there was no real moment that I felt that I did not feel a part of the team.
“Then halfway through the year, I went playing the under-20s hurling to finish it off from the previous year but when I went back in, Dessie was so open in that sense. He told me to go and enjoy my 20s career and come back afterwards and see where we were. To be fair, it was the best decision anyone could have made because it refreshed me, brought me back with a new lease of life and then I brought that into this year.”
That difference in fitness all began on the training field: “In 2021, the first four months you were in lockdown, so I probably took the foot off the gas a little bit and when you are running on your own you are probably not putting in the extra few yards you would in a team environment.
“So when I got back in at the end of 2021, it was great to be just in a team environment and have everybody working towards the same goal and I just tried to drive myself on and the lads drove me on as well.”
