BLUE BROTHERS
Dubs stars have a special bond, says McCaffrey
JACK McCAFFREY yesterday hailed his Dublin team-mates as a band of brothers, saying he has a ‘deep, deep love for them’.
As Dublin celebrated their fifth All-Ireland win in a row by beating Kerry on Saturday night, McCaffrey opened up about the bond that binds the history makers.
‘What brings us together is we’re decent footballers and playing well together but we have been on the road quite a while now.
‘What I love about this group is that I am really good friends with them and I have a deep, deep love for them,’ revealed McCaffrey, who insisted it was in that spirit that the players welcomed Diarmuid Connolly back into their camp in mid-summer.
‘I remember the session he came back, I was beaming because I was delighted to have him back. I know things about the Dublin footballers that I don’t think anyone else in the world knows. I’ve spoken to the lads about things that I’ll never speak to anyone else about.’
‘So much hinges on partnership between captain and manager’
THE time difference meant it was lights out for the Ireland rugby team in Chiba, Japan, when referee Conor Lane threw the ball up at 2am local time. But first thing the next morning, the AllIreland final was screened for those looking to make their own bit of sporting history and lift the Webb Ellis Cup for the first time.
One of those is captain, Rory Best. A part of him must look at Dublin skipper Stephen Cluxton and believe that anything is possible.
It’s remarkable to think that two of the biggest stories of the year are being shaped and defined by two men who are 37 years old.
As the Dublin players paraded alongside their Kerry counterparts in front of the Cusack Stand at Croke Park just before 6.0pm on Saturday evening, the sun broke through the cloud cover. A single beam filtered through the top of the stand and seemed to settle around Cluxton as he walked at the front of the line. It created a halo effect for a player who might as well be The Chosen One for Dublin supporters. Destiny’s child. The only player whose career spans this golden era for Dublin football and also the dark days of unfulfilled promise, right back to Dublin-Kerry at Thurles in 2001 when he was already pushing for inclusion.
Cluxton is top of the all-time list of Championship appearances — Saturday was number 106. He was captain for each one of Dublin’s five consecutive titles but has actually won six medals as captain when 2013 is included. He has seven medals in total, adding in 2011.
Private, media-shy, and uninterested in any of the trappings of success, he is an obsessive trainer, a perfectionist on the training ground, driven by pushing the boundary of his own game — and the game of Gaelic football — to the limit. The Parnells clubman was selected as captain by Jim Gavin for good reason.
Cluxton is not someone who trades in sentiment. When Tomás Ó Sé handed him the match ball as a final act in the 2011 final, when Pat Gilroy’s Dublin kick-started the revolution, he famously turned and booted it into the crowd.
Not for him a souvenir of a momentous day, one which signalled a change in the old balance of power.
So it prompted all sorts of questions to see his reaction after the final whistle and after delivering his victory speech from the steps of the Hogan Stand.
‘That was an emotional Stephen Cluxton. You wonder is that because of the weight of history, five in a row, or is it because he feels it may be his last?’ asked RTÉ anchor Joanne Cantwell in the live broadcast.
‘If you look at his performance this year, you fear that he is going to retire,’ admitted Ciarán Whelan, capturing the thoughts of all the Dublin supporters who stayed in the stadium and followed his every move. ‘He looks as good, as sharp as he always did.’
As the players raced towards Hill 16 to show off the Sam Maguire, Cluxton smiled and laughed as he shared a warm embrace with Gavin before following them, minutes later, at his own leisurely pace.
After taking selfies with supporters, shaking hands, Gavin then followed in similar fashion.
It was hard to avoid the sense of a natural ending, especially as the book closed on the decade. Was Cluxton’s wave to the crowd one of farewell? Will Gavin now step away having conquered the game’s Everest?
‘The history of sports stars, whether they are players or managers, usually ends in failure,’ said Pat Spillane back in studio, capturing one of sport’s cold but eternal truths. ‘No one knows when to get the last hurrah, when is the right time. Stephen, this is the right time.’
For all the talk of domination, so much hinges on whether the captain and manager continue their own partnership and commit to
‘Through his example, he inspires his team-mates’
2020 and beyond. In so many ways, this is their team.
At 37, Cluxton is a nailed on AllStar, his form across the two Kerry games pushing him into Footballer of the Year contention.
As the teams paraded around the ground before the drawn game, the live television feed picked out a huge banner on Hill 16. ‘Heroes are remembered… Legends live forever’ it proclaimed with five Sam Maguire Cups the centrepiece, flanked by the faces of Cluxton and Gavin.
In that game, the goalkeeper produced a tour-de-force of kicking under pressure, particularly in the second half against a full-court Kerry press and Dublin down a man. In that half, he hit the first seven in a row without losing a single one. That was in addition to saving a first-half penalty and showing remarkable reflexes to tip Paul Murphy’s thunderbolt on to the crossbar.
In the replay, Dublin won 23 of 25 kick-outs.
None of this happens by accident. In the post-match press conference, it was telling to hear Gavin lift a lid on Cluxton’s extraordinary attention to detail, his thirst for knowledge when discussing his match-defining block on Stephen O’Brien in the 54th minute. Instead of a goal bringing Kerry level, Dublin kicked on and won by six.
‘That’s the result of hundreds of hours,’ said Gavin of that save. ‘If you look back on his stance, that’s not the first time I’ve seen that. Josh Moran, his goalkeeping coach, and the goalkeeping coaches that have worked with him, deserve credit for that. That’s something that you see replicated. I saw it earlier on this week.
‘So, that’s someone who’s dedicated to their craft, and the result of that is what you see in those clutch moments, to have that composure to make himself big and strong. That’s what Stephen does — he does his job.’
Gavin spoke of how he studied his own body positioning for the Killian Spillane goal in the drawn game, and tried to learn from it.
‘He had a bloody laptop, trying to replay in slow motion what way his feet and positioning were. That’s somebody who’s a master of his craft. Through that example, he inspires people around him.
‘Stephen is well able to talk, he’s very articulate and people listen. But how he demonstrates, his actions, that’s what I’m interested in. That’s what he does. He’s a doer.’
And he will always continue to do his own thing. Nially Scully’s Instagram post from the winning dressing room provided a bit of behind-the-scenes colour.
There’s Cormac Costello rapping away to Dublin band Versatile, mouthing out the lyrics of the track Prefontaine. Laughing as he bounces around in front of Cluxton who seems oblivious to the thumping beat in the dressing room, and his teammate’s, dance moves, as he scoops up some gear.
In his speech from the steps of the Hogan Stand, he referenced ‘the sacrifices we have gone through, the hard yards we have put in’, signing off with: ‘Have a great night, go raibh maith agat.’
It mightn’t have the same zing as 2011 captain Bryan Cullen’s, ‘See ye all in Coppers’, but it was in keeping with a player who has always moved to his own beat.