Although Dublin manager Jim Gavin has been given another headache with speculation that Footballer of the Year Jack McCaffrey may be missing at least part of this year's All-Ireland defence, on a more positive front the team is about to mark a full year's 100 per cent record in the Allianz Football League.
Saturday’s double bill in Croke Park with the county hurlers – both teams facing Cork – takes place on the same weekend 12 months on that the footballers scored a last-minute goal to draw with Tyrone also in headquarters.
From then on Dublin scored wins over Mayo, Derry, Monaghan (twice, including the semi-final) and Cork in the final. So far the holders have defeated Kerry, Mayo and Monaghan to establish a sequence of eight successive victories. Saturday evening would make it nine, a record for Division One under the current format.
Regulation stages
By way of caution, Cork have won this fixture during the regulation stages of the league in the past two years although each time they were subsequently defeated by Dublin in the knockout stages.
Dublin managed seven matches in a row between the end of the 2010 season and the start of 2011.
The county’s success in the league has gone hand in hand with the most successful spell in the championship since the 1970s when three All-Irelands were also won along with two league titles. This year will be Dublin’s opportunity to equal the six successive Leinster titles won by their predecessors from 1974 to ’79.
Should the county defend the league it will be the first time since Kerry in 1971-’74 that four successive titles have been won. In those years Kerry didn’t achieve the All-Ireland double in any season.
There has been no reaction yet from Dublin management to speculation that McCaffrey may miss at least some of this year’s championship. The 22-year old medical student is understood to be taking time out for work overseas and thereafter may also wish to take a further break.
Already Gavin has lost the services of another current All Star, full-back Rory O’Carroll, who indicated last week that his move to New Zealand this month may be open-ended.
McCaffrey’s lightning pace has been a feature of Dublin’s play since his breakthrough senior year in 2013 when he won the Young Footballer of the Year award. Although unwell in the lead-up to last year’s final against Kerry he played a full role in the victory.
Only a fortnight ago he captained UCD to Sigerson Cup success and although he missed last week’s match against Monaghan with a hamstring injury, he has played with Dublin in the other two matches of the county’s 100 per cent start to the current campaign.
Gavin will be hoping to reach an accommodation that can see the player return for at least some of the coming championship or otherwise face being down one third of the defence that delivered both of his All-Irelands.
