Five key reasons Dublin beat Kerry

Dublin’s 16-year wait for an All-Ireland title is over. Here are five reasons the Dubs were able to lower Kerry’s colours and consign Sam Maguire to a winter by the Liffey.

By Shane Breslin

1. The brothers

Quite often in sport the good guys don’t get what they deserve. Fortunately for us and Gaelic football supporters everywhere, the Brogan brothers, who shared four points from play in a game of such tight margins yesterday, have now got what they deserved.

Alan has long been a strong running strike forward with a less than perfect ratio of scores to chances. When Bernard emerged it quickly became apparent that he was made of different stuff: he lacked some of the explosive pace of his brother, but more than made up for it in clinical finishing.

Dubs supporters should light a candle or two to their pair of Brogan brothers. Family ties are a formidable cornerstone of what the GAA is built on, and there isn’t a clearer representation of that than Dublin’s Brogans.

If talk is cheap, Stephen Cluxton is solid gold.

2. The quiet man

Stephen Cluxton is imperturbable, unflappable, singularly focused. It’s generations since Dublin had such a reliable free-taker. Barney Rock, Charlie Redmond, Jim Gavin, Ray Cosgrove, Mark Vaughan, Mossy Quinn – all sometimes brilliant, all with a touch of flakiness. Would you have fancied any to stand over a match-winning free at the end of an All-Ireland final.

But Cluxton is on a different level. For a decade or so he has been a massive player for the Dubs. Who’d have thought a simple tweak would make him even more important.

He also seems to be a bit of an oddball – he apparently left the Croke Park field yesterday before the presentation – but that will only add to his legend. If talk is cheap, Stephen Cluxton is solid gold.

Two key men ... Gilroy and Cluxton

3. The manager

Pat Gilroy had to deal with plenty of criticism in the early days. It’s only 15 or 16 months, remember, since Wexford threw away a sizeable lead en route to an extra-time defeat and Meath put five goals past the Dubs at Croker.

But Gilroy had a vision, and everyone within the panel bought into that vision. Even though it was obvious that Gilroy and the rest of the Dubs backroom team were manifestly calming the hype and talking up the opposition, that ploy worked a treat. We wrote not so long ago that Jack O’Connor deserves to be considered alongside some of the top bosses in GAA history, but he was outwitted by Gilroy here.

The Dubs have a quiet, thoughtful, tactical maestro in their dugout.

4. The bench

Much, of course, will be said and written about Kevin McManamon’s performance, and it was an incredible 20-minute cameo, all the more so because his first three or four interventions had a detrimental impact – he fumbled, he lost possession, he gave away a free in front of the posts, he was booked.

But McManamon is made for the role of impact sub. The only predictable thing about him is that he’s direct. His barrelling running is the last thing a tiring defence wants to be faced with.

He wasn’t alone as a Dublin sub to make an impact, however. Philly McMahon shored things up, as expected from someone who would have been certain to start but for an injury which robbed him of his place at a crucial time. Eoghan O’Gara broke raw physicality. Eamon Fennell won some key battles for possession.

If there were any lingering doubts that Championship Gaelic football is a squad game, they were surely dispelled on Sunday. Cork won the All-Ireland last year with key contributions from substitutes and Dublin repeated the trick.

5. The conveyor belt

Dublin is reaping the rewards of the GAA’s rude health in the capital. Of the 20 players who featured against Kerry in a humiliating All-Ireland quarter-final defeat two years ago, only nine played any part at the weekend. All six backs were new – three who played in the back line in 2009 (Denis Bastick, Bryan Cullen and Barry Cahill) were stationed elsewhere this time.

The U21 All-Ireland champions of last year have already produced several senior champs. The underage sides of 2011 also look full of future senior regulars. If the Dubs can find insatiable hunger and mental fortitude to go with their abundant talent, there’s no reason they can’t go on to add another All-Ireland or two over the next few years.

It certainly shouldn’t be another 16 years before Sam Maguire spends another winter in the capital.