Dessie Farrell reaches his breaking point

Extra.ie​

a day ago

Sideline cool has been the hallmark of Dublin leaders in the years of plenty.
Pat Gilroy was animated in starting the revolution, but Jim Gavin, whatever his demeanour behind the walls of the training ground, was in public the Zen face of the greatest team in Irish sport.
This was most famously shown during a League game in Tralee in early 2019. Pat Gilroy. Pic: Seb Daly/Sportsfile
At the half-time whistle, there was an outbreak of shaping, pulling and dragging between the Kerry and Dublin players. As the TV cameras zoomed in, Gavin walked into shot, making his way across the pitch to the dressing rooms.
And he didn't break stride as he approached the rows breaking out all around him, instead stepping briskly past them and continuing on his way.
Dessie Farrell brought a similar steadiness in public on succeeding Gavin. Like his old team-mate, he is measured and not given to histrionics on the line. Dublin manager Dessie Farrell. Pic: David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile
But every man has his breaking point, and Farrell reached his on Sunday in Croke Park.
As he watched his team concede five points to technical breaches in their bleak defeat to Armagh, Farrell took off his baseball cap at one point and threw it to the ground.
He quickly picked it up and put it back on, but his reaction was as eloquent a commentary on Dublin's performance as the grim statistic of 17 wides. Dublin vs Armagh, June 1, 2025. Pic: Ray McManus/Sportsfile
Little wonder that Farrell talked of 'sloppy' play, and he was, understandably, exercised by those needless rule breaches.
Three of them were for breaking the 4v3 rule, which handed Armagh three simple second-half points, while an infraction on an Armagh mark in the first half gave Rory Grugan the chance to land a two-point free, which he duly did.
Almost as bad were the wild two-point attempts in the second half as Dublin chased the game. Armagh had taken control of the match thanks to two-pointers, with Grugan landing a rallying score when his team trailed by three early on. Rian O'Neill. Pic: ©INPHO/Laszlo Geczo
Then Rian O'Neill brought a dazzling edge to his return, scoring three booming two-pointers, one from a free, one from what seemed near the middle of the field, and one shortly after half-time that appeared to have a demoralising effect on Dublin.
It looked as if Dublin players saw what the opposition were doing and tried to ape it, but to muddled effect. They managed three two-pointers but only by squandering a host of other chances; teams rarely thrive on a tactic of throwing everything at the wall and hoping enough of it sticks.
With a return to characteristic understatement, Farrell suggested after the match that players might 'regret' some of their shooting choices. The live danger is that Dublin's regret is only beginning. Dublin manager Dessie Farrell. Pic: INPHO/Ryan Byrne
The draw for the final round of group matches obliges them to play Derry in Páirc Esler on Saturday week. It looks a winnable match for Farrell's team, who are second in Group 4 on two points.
However, Derry showed enough in their rip-roaring draw with Galway in Celtic Park to encourage the belief that they haven't been far away from a win this season, undone by a wretched run of tough fixtures, and the degenerative effect loss after loss has on players' belief.
That latter problem became particularly obvious when allowing Galway back into a contest that should have been well beyond them. But there is quality still in the team, from the inspirational Brendan Rogers and Conor Glass to, significantly, a marked uptick in the performance of Shane McGuigan at the weekend.
A venue that will be alien territory for Dublin but well known to Derry could also be a factor, but last Sunday's performance, in front of a half-full crowd, suggested that the importance of Croke Park is declining as Dublin becomes diminished, too.
There will be consolation for Farrell and Dublin supporters in the memory of the team producing their best performance of the year in Salthill in round one of the group series.
That match, crucially, featured a fit Con O'Callaghan, for 45 minutes, anyway. He departed early with an injury that kept him out for the Armagh match.
O'Callaghan offers a luxurious spread of services, from ball-winning to point-scoring, from two-pointers to focal point.
It seems crucial to get him fit for Saturday week. Even then, though, Dublin's reliance on so many facets of O'Callaghan's game is also a reflection on the thin spread of quality elsewhere in the attack.
The exception to that is Ciarán Kilkenny, but, like O'Callaghan, he fulfils many roles. There is only so much a veteran can do, though, and Kilkenny looked worn out by the end of Sunday's game. His frustrated attempt at a two-pointer was the last action of the game, which was an apt conShackled: clusion ? Cofaig,h given the team-wide carelessness, if not fairly capturing how hard the player himself had tried.
What Farrell needs is for support players to become leaders, but if experienced picks haven't done it by now, they're unlikely to discover their inner James McCarthy in the next fortnight.
And in the case of others, they don't yet have the experience to inspire a team struggling with a transition between one era and the next one.
Beating a winless Derry isn't beyond this side, as there is enough talent and application in the team to follow a clever plan to a happy conclusion.
But Armagh's superiority was at times painfully obvious in Croke Park. Donegal also looks a standard above, as potentially do Kerry and Tyrone.
This makes a stark contrast with the hysteria around Dublin dominance when they were winning six in a row. They were better than the rest of the country then, but fears about an unending age of blue rule were silly, based on little evidence.
The bruising reality of today makes that doom-mongering seem even dafter.
Dublin are back among the pack, not so far behind that they give up hope, but with the gap between them and the best more pronounced than it's been in almost two decades.