Scully's belief in Dublin still as strong as ever
The repercussions of Portlaoise played out half an hour or so after Niall Scully had finished his media duties in the Muskerry Suite of Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
Scully had talked about his Dublin team lacking composure and how they just couldn't get their hands on the ball during a Leinster semi-final first-half that Meath finished 0-17 to 0-5 clear.
The consequences of that absent composure and their usually top-of-the-class problem-solving capacity were steep. Very steep.
A Round 1 fixture away to either Galway or Mayo. A Round 2 fixture at home to Armagh or Donegal. And the group that everyone else is glad they're not part of concludes against Derry at a halfway house. Repercussions, indeed.
As noted at the outset, Scully spoke with the media before the Sam Maguire draw proved so unkind and stretched out even further their road to Sunday, July 27.
Scully's message, while in the presence of those dictaphones and tape recorders, was that Dublin still firmly believe they can reach July 27 and reach 5.30pm of July 27 as champions.
'Absolutely, yeah,' stated the 31-year-old Dublin forward.
Portlaoise, so, was no fatal blow?
'Not at all,' he continued.
'We were hoping we would be in a Leinster final and win the Leinster series. But again, we have to take it as it comes. We have dealt with blows previously. We've been relegated to Division 2 and won an All-Ireland from Division 2. We'd be hoping for something similar.
'We are good enough to be in the mix, if you get it right. We have a three or four-week period to do that.'
Back to Portlaoise. It merits greater introspection. It was, after all, the county's first defeat in 44 Leinster outings.
From the perspective of the blue corner and the perspective of someone who has already watched back proceedings more than once, what happened?
First off, Scully, a five-time All-Ireland winner, refused flat out to lean on either their injury situation or being taken out of Croke Park as factors in a first Leinster setback since 2010.
Kickout retention, so rarely an issue, was a gargantuan one at O'Moore Park. Six of Cluxton's 19 first-half restarts were not retained.
On occasion, the issue was on the receiver's end, such as when intended target Scully slipped at the crucial moment. In the main, though, their kickouts amounted to a constant source of lost possession.
'They obviously targeted our kickouts and got a good bit of joy out of it. And, I suppose, if you're not winning your kickouts, you have less of the ball and less plays for us to attack.
'At the weekend, you'd a huge wind, us kicking against the wind, and a press coming on… we just couldn't figure out how to get our hands on the ball. And you've probably seen, by most games that have gone on over the last couple of weeks, the kickouts are probably a lot more crucial to what they would have been previously.
'I've watched the game a couple of times, and I don't think, as a team and as a collective, you can't have any complaints from the performances of both sides on the day.
'Meath are a good side. They probably should have been promoted, just missed out on promotion to Division 1 this year. They came with a game-plan and they executed it.
"Down the last 10 minutes, we'd a lot of unforced turnovers and our execution was off. Against Kerry in the League, all them opportunities that we had came off and the execution was correct. It's probably a fine balance between the two.'
Before Portlaoise, Dublin were not being mentioned in the same conversation as Donegal, Kerry, and Galway.
After Portlaoise and after yesterday's draw, their re-entry into that conversation, which has since been expanded to include Armagh, has been pushed further from them.
'We won't be focusing too much on external factors – we'll keep a lot in-house,' said Scully.
'Ever since I've been involved, I've tried to avoid the external chat and the external conversation. We're going to regroup. We won't be focusing on what everybody else is going to say about us. Everybody will have their opinions but what matters most is what we're discussing with ourselves.
'As a group, we'd 100% much prefer to be in a Leinster final, but we're not. So we'll have three or four weeks with the fit players to figure things out and three or four weeks for the lads that are injured to come back when they're ready.'
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