GAVIN’S DUBS READY TO FLY
Blues boss says he’s equipped for turbulence in the drive for five
‘There’s no guarantee of getting to your destintation’
OTHER than a sideline, if there is a place that Jim Gavin feels right at home it’s Casement Aerodrome in Baldonnel.
A stone’s throw from his family home in Clondalkin, it’s what set his career on its own flightpath. What inspired him to join the Defence Forces and become a pilot, live on site for a good part of his life, and bring him to the point where the assistant director in the Irish Aviation Authority is better known as the man trying to guide Dublin’s All-Ireland five-ina-row bid safely home.
Sitting back in the environs of Casement Aerodrome — the venue for the Leinster football launch, picked for good reason — he talks freely about how a lifetime in aviation has shaped his thought processes.
‘In the pilot game, you are trading off your preparation. For every flight. There are no guarantees you get from your departure airfield to your destination.
‘You’ve planned for it. You’ve trained for it. You’re in the sim [flight simulator] every six months. You do all your checks and processes and procedures.
‘You’re planning to get there but sometimes you need to adapt as the flight evolves. Be it an abnormality or an incident in the aircraft or an emergency.
‘Or it might be routine. There is no particular straightforward path in aviation, that’s for sure.’
It’s the perfect metaphor for Dublin’s season. Will there be an ‘abnormality’, an ‘incident’ or an ‘emergency’ to throw Dublin off course?
Or will it be ‘routine’, as so many expect the opening match to be on Saturday night at Portlaoise against Louth?
Since taking charge of Dublin for the 2013 season, Gavin has overseen a golden era of unprecedented success, this summer offering a shot at immortality after the five All-Irelands in six seasons, the five National Leagues in seven attempts and the clean sweep in Leinster.
To understand what made him who he is, he explains how much of a formative influence his time in Baldonnel had.
‘Sure, I lived here! Ah yeah, this was my home for 20 years.
‘The first years I would have spent in the Military College in the Curragh Camp, Defence Forces training centre as part of my cadet training. I graduated there with the rank of second lieutenant in Óglaigh na hÉireann, defence forces… then I spent 18 years flying aircraft here. I probably lived here for six to eight years… on the base.’
To those who wondered at his capacity to walk around the finalwhistle shemozzle in Tralee in early February between some Kerry and Dublin players with an untroubled air, this is the same person who has spent time on tour in Chad and other hotspots around the world.
Indeed, Gavin juggled his own Dublin football career with seeing the world, meaning he never felt the need to take a gap year.
‘It was fantastic training. My time in Óglaigh na hÉireann has served me well.
‘They really looked after me. They trained me really well, gave me great opportunities to travel the world, both flying and on the ground with UN missions overseas. So, why take a gap year? You’ve every opportunity in the Defence Forces, to be honest with you, and it’s up to you to pursue those. Yeah, it was a fantastic career.
‘I mean, I love my career now — I’m still in aviation with the Irish Aviation Authority. I’ve a passion for aviation. I wouldn’t see it as a job, I’m lucky that way.’
And it informs how he approaches the job of Dublin senior football manager.
‘It has a huge influence on me. Even from the cadet school, the officer training, to aviation itself has had a big influence on me.
‘Even in the context of this year [the Ethiopian airlines crash] … in aviation, there are no guarantees.
‘Commercial air transport is a very safe industry, but it has become so safe because we have learned from the failures and the incidents and accidents from the past.’ The last man to try and guide a team to a five-ina-row, Kilkenny’s Brian Cody, has just left the same room. In terms of learning from sporting history, does Gavin look back at Kilkenny 2010, or Seamus Darby spiking Kerry’s ambitions in the 1982 final? ‘No. I don’t, to be honest. It’s about what Dublin can control.’
Later this summer, a muchhyped sequel hits the big screen, for those of a certain generation. Tom Cruise is back to star in a sequel to 1980s hit Top Gun, where the Hollywood heavyweight has been recast as — yes you’ve guessed it — a flight instructor.
From the outside, Gavin comes across as the anti-Cruise. No ego. No bravado.
A self-proclaimed coaching ‘magpie’ rather than a grandlyentitled Maverick.
The Dublin boss concedes he did ‘a lot of aerobatics, a lot of airshows and displays back in the day’, though not quite ‘the Top Gun kind of stuff’.
By July 12 when it goes on
release, Dublin are expected to have a ninth Leinster title in a row and a 14th in 15 years wrapped up. Preparing for a first-round Super 8s game as Leinster champions against the Munster runners-up or a team that defeats them in round four of the qualifiers.
While Dublin lost three regulations games in the spring just gone — the first time on his watch — Gavin says a bit of context is needed.
‘There has been a bounce of a ball between us in other games as well, down through the National Football League in previous seasons.
‘Like, we finished fourth before and qualified for a National League final. It’s all context, whether you want to dive in to that.
‘Coming out of the National League, the learning from that was, if we don’t perform to our very best we’ll end up fourth in the league as we did. And we deserved to be there.
‘It’s no secret that coming out of the National Football League there is quality sides there evolving every season. From Kerry blazing a trail to Tyrone playing a more offensive, attacking game, to the consistency of Mayo being deservedly National Football League winners for 2019 Division 1.
‘Those things are outside of my control. All I can so is focus on the Dublin football team and get us to be our best.’