This is what Jack O’Connor came back for. Not just the winning and the getting through to the final and all the grimly important brass tacks of it all. Mostly that but also this: standing there on the sideline with Croke Park frothing and the country hardwired into what was happening out there in front of him.
“Can I ask ye a question?” he goes, throwing his arms out wide. “Was it the classic that we thought it was on the line? As a battle? Two prize bulls going toe to toe. It felt on the line that it was two kind of heavyweights going at it, trading punches. That’s the way it felt to me on the line. Not that I should have been getting those kind of notions on the line. Every now and again, you’d say, ‘Jesus wouldn’t it be great to be inside in the middle of this, trading blows.’”
We ask him what he made of it overall and he puffs his cheeks and makes a stab at it.
“Well it was a good test of the heart, that’s all I know. The aul ticker was going fairly fast there towards the end. It was a fantastic game. That game was going against us, there was a fairly significant breeze there. I think the absolute key to it was in the last 10 minutes when Dublin were pressing our kickouts Shane Ryan got off all his kickouts. If we turned over one of those kickouts I think we were done.
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“Of course it’s significant psychologically but I was saying to the television media out there, Mayo were in this exact same position last year and I had the feeling that Mayo had made a huge breakthrough but they didn’t get over the line in the final. You have to go the distance. Getting there isn’t enough.”
For Dessie Farrell it’s the second year in a row sitting down after an epic semi-final and talking about where it all went wrong. He tries to put it in some sort of context – after all, history didn’t start with Stephen Cluxton kicking the winner in 2011. Dublin have to take a number now for a while. That’s how it’s supposed to work.
“We all remember – some of the young lads in there won’t – the wilderness years in Dublin. Even after ‘83, 95, there were some barren years to follow. I’m hoping those days are gone. The challenge for the group is to try and keep evolving, that it doesn’t fall off a cliff. While you might not necessarily be winning titles we set our stall out this year that we want to be really competitive for championship.
“And I think we were. Obviously, came up short today but for the group, the character, the resolve, how they carried themselves – that fighting spirit was evident in spades and I think that’s a great platform for the team. Even for some of the young lads, even in defeat there’s great strength to be taken in terms of what lies ahead for their own intercounty careers.”
