Dublin v Tyrone: Dubs must restore Con and confidence on search for Sam

Irish Daily Mirror

25-06-2025

Barney Rock claims Dublin need to restore Con and confidence if they are to fire their way back to All-Ireland glory.
But Rock fears that his dream of a crazy Dublin All-Ireland double could be undone by a legacy issue that once worked in the footballers' favour.
The hurlers' shock victory over Limerick last Saturday has GAA fans in the capital buzzing and Rock is happily allowing himself to get carried away.
"There's possibilities in everything," he smiled. "Dublin could be playing Kilkenny in the All-Ireland hurling final and we could have a Dublin-Meath final.
"And if Dublin won both All-Irelands, you'd have both managers coming from the same club, Na Fianna. It could happen, we don't know - that's the way sport goes. Meath could have a big say in that!".
Dessie Farrell's footballers are back in action on Sunday in Croke Park, with a tough All-Ireland SFC quarter-final against Tyrone to negotiate.
Dubs supporters are praying that their classy dangerman O'Callaghan returns after he suffered a hamstring injury in the opening group victory over Galway, missed the defeat to Armagh and then picked up another problem in the draw with Derry.
"Dublin do need him," asserted Rock. "He's an exceptional footballer, we're a much, much better team with Con plays because he always scores and creates scores.
"The lads on the field aren't doing what Con will normally do but they do know how to win in Croke Park, they could win a scrappy match. But if it comes to shoot-out, that might be the problem.
"That would probably catch them against Kerry or Armagh - with one of them gone this weekend - or against Donegal or Galway or even Monaghan or Meath. There's a lot of teams there that can shoot two-pointers."
Dublin have struggled badly in that department. Rock identifies the emphasis during the golden years of success of taking the percentage score as the reason.
It was why, even before the new rules came into existence, Galway beat them at this stage of last year's championship. "We're not the greatest two-point kickers and that (long-range kicking problem) has come back to haunt them," said the legendary prolific free-taker.
"Last year against Galway, they had opportunities but Galway beat them because they had fellas kicking long range scores. Most good teams in the All-Ireland now will get between five and seven seven two-pointers. They'll have a go at it.
"With Dublin, maybe it's a confidence thing that some of the lads are just half afraid. Before now, Dublin had to make sure you got it in (closer to goal), you'd take the percentage shot. The percentage probably would be about 80 to 90 and outside of that you don't shoot and it's come back to bite them a little bit."When you look at them now, some of the misses - even in the Armagh match they were snatching at their shots and they were going wide, and that was disappointing."
Rock was also unhappy that Dublin handed Armagh easy scores by technical breaches under the FRC's new rules. "How could that happen? Dublin are probably the most organised team," he said.
"But to do three of them within an eight-minute period, that was three points - and then all of a sudden you're only down to one kick of a ball to level the game when we had 17 wides."
The 64-year-old puts those costly errors down to a lack of confidence but is adamant that one good win against Tyrone would lift the Dubs.
"And Tyrone is the ideal match for them," he claimed. "Tyrone will have small nippy forwards, which will probably suit Dublin in one sense, because we wouldn't be the tallest fellas in the backline. But the loss of James McCarthy and Brian Fenton, it's big for them. When you think of this type of game, it would have suited them.
"The way the game has gone now, it seems to go from the kick-out and it's all about the break around the midfield. If Dublin can pick up those breaks and go forward, they'll cause more problems for Tyrone.
"(Peadar) Ó Cofaigh Byrne is going to be meeting somebody equally as tall as him and that's how it will be from here on in. He's been brilliant in the last couple of games, single-handedly around midfield he's either won or broke ball."
Rock, like every other Blues supporter, was questioning what was going on after Dublin struggled past Wicklow and then lost to Meath in Leinster, their first provincial defeat in 15 years.
"But I still think that Dublin will always find a way and if they win next Sunday, they're in an All-Ireland semi-final," he asserted. "If Dublin win the All-Ireland this year, it probably would be one of the greatest ones to win.
"Dessie would have had to set up a new team. And from that point of view it would be great because he lost Brian Fenton and he lost James McCarthy, and a few others."
Overall, Rock feels that the Dubs have blown "hot and cold" since the Meath loss, through the group stage and against Cork last Saturday. However he believes that the Royals' famous ambush in Portlaoise has, in a way, helped the Dubs.
"It probably gave them a little bit of a breather in that sense, it took the pressure off them," Rock claimed. "Everything went on Meath and Louth and Dublin then focused on the championship - and they really focused on the Galway match.
"That was a big match for them - if they were beaten then they were going to struggle at that stage, but they really took it to Galway and deservedly beat them."
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As a Dublin footballer, Dean Rock would have loved the transformation of the game under the FRC's remit. So would his dad, whose scores total at intercounty level would have been even higher if the two-pointer existed in his day.
"Well, most people would be the same," said Barney, modestly. "But back in those days people would have shot, people sometimes would shoot on sight at the target (and missed).
"But the game is changing and it's changing for the better, and it'll be interesting. I just like seeing more goals - although David Clifford scored enough last week so I can't say too much!".
Barney insists that it's not weird watching his beloved Dubs without Dean playing. His son retired from the intercounty game at the start of last year after winning eight All-Irelands.
"No, it's not," said Rock. "At the end of the day, every player goes to the end of their time with their team. Dean probably would love this type of game because he would be well able to kick from far out. But it just comes down to we all have to say we've given it our all. At this stage he's happy to be playing with his club."
Barney says that the Jim Gavin-fronted rules committee have "woken up the whole championship in many ways", adding that he loves the three attackers on three defenders scenario.
"It's great, now it gives forwards an opportunity to get in there and move it," said Rock, who predicts Monaghan could be the dark horse of the quarter-finals this weekend against Donegal.
"But there's probably not as many goals scored when you take up the three on three that there should be and there could be, because you'd be expecting fellas to be getting in more, keepers would be making more saves.
"But certainly when the ball breaks, every one of them are nearly 100 metre athletes because everybody just goes forward real quick. So the transition from when the breakdown comes to getting forward is probably the most exciting part of the game - but it's when it gets a little laboured, it goes back (to the old style of playing).
"Like last week's hurling match (between Dublin and Limerick), the hurling was fantastic and the atmosphere after the hurling match, what it really needed was a real attack-minded game.
"But it ended up being just a little bit sour. It was always very hard to follow hurling with football - but that one just looked like, 'Geez, we're going back'.
"Then the Sunday Tailteann Cup game between Wicklow and Limerick, it was great - but then the next one with the better teams (Kildare and Fermanagh) just didn't really ignite."
*Barney Rock was speaking at the launch of the 24th annual Circet All-Ireland GAA Golf Challenge in aid of GAA-related charities at Michael Lyng Motors (Ford) in Kilkenny