Dessie Farrell quits as Dublin manager after quarter final defeat to Tyrone
All over for Dublin boss after they are well beaten by Tyrone
Dessie Farrell announced his resignation as Dublin senior football manager is over, after his side's All-Ireland quarter final loss to Tyrone in Croke Park.
Farrell broke the news in a post match interview on TV and then clarified his decision in a press conference.
'I've had a great innings," he said. "I think between being a player for Dublin underage and a senior player and then as an underage coach and a senior coach, manager, whatever you want to call it, I've the guts of 40 years, you know.
"So it's a long time and it's been a privilege every year, every step of the journey. I've met some great people. I've had a ringside seat for some of the best players that ever performed in the arena out there.
"Some of the new lads we brought in this year, I was still getting to know them, maybe but a great crop of fellas as well. It augurs very well for Dublin football and then there's an older gang that I would have taken from an under 13 development squad and seen them grow from young boys to young men and to older men if you like, and that's a privilege not many get to do and I'm very grateful for that.
'I'm very grateful for the dedication and commitment of all the players and all the coaches and all the backroom teams that I've worked with along the way.
"It's a special sort of involvement being involved with Dublin football and we all know how dear and special the GAA is to all of us and I'm just so grateful that I was fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to do what I do and now is the time to move away.'
Farrell took over from Jim Gavin after Dublin had completed a record five All-Ireland title wins in a row in 2019. In his first year in charge, during the year of the Covid pandemic which severely disrupted training and games, he led Dublin to another title when they defeated Mayo 2-14 to 0-15.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Irish Examiner
an hour ago
- Irish Examiner
Waterford look to a bright new future
All-Ireland MHC final: Waterford 1-18 Clare 0-10 BE it hope, pressure, or expectation, pinning too much of anything on a successful minor team is never a smart move. Such behaviour is even more ill-advised again since the age-grade dropped to U17. On a greasy Saturday evening at Semple Stadium, Waterford collected a fourth All-Ireland minor crown in the county's history. The 11-point winning margin bridged a 12-year gap to their most recent acquaintance with the Irish Press Cup. Waterford got right lucky with that 2013 class, if lucky is indeed the correct term. Of those who featured in the 65-year famine-ending win over Galway, the number of players that continued up the ladder to line out in senior championship reached double-digits. Such numbers from one minor crop is absolutely the exception to the rule. Take as contrast Galway's four-in-a-row of All-Ireland minor wins from 2017-20. We counted the number of players from across the four teams who played championship this year or pushed for championship involvement. The figure did not reach double-digits. The conclusion to be taken is thus: consistency of progression from one all-conquering minor team to the next is simply non-existent. Attempting to predict who will climb the ladder is a popular exercise, but ultimately a futile one. As should be now clear, minor victories are never dealt with in isolation. The focus is always to the future. From final whistle to senior forecasting. The future will not be overlooked here. There is a need, though, to stay resident in the present for a touch longer than usual. For as much as Waterford will hope and expect to mine senior hurlers from this crop in the years ahead, the Déise, in the here and now, so desperately needed this silverware. At all levels, Waterford have ceded ground. No emergence out of the Munster SHC in the six seasons of the round-robin structure. A single Munster U20 championship win in the last nine years - and that over Kerry. No win at all in their 13 most recent outings. The recent minor record not a whole pile better. Across 2022, '23, and 24, there were 13 outings and 11 defeats. And then happened 2025. Cork were the only team to better them in Munster, in both the round-robin and decider. The Déise kids regrouped for the All-Ireland series, downing Limerick, Kilkenny, and Clare to achieve a stunning change of direction in the county's underage fortunes. The Waterford supporters in the crowd of 15,411 will have spent some of Saturday's journey home plotting future silverware around goalkeeper James Comerford, corner-back Darragh Keane, midfielder Gearóid O'Shea, half-forward Shane Power, and full-forward Cormac Spain (the latter three accounted for 0-16 of their 1-18 total). We must first, though, celebrate the eight-game campaign these young talents and their teammates survived and thrived in. 'Long nights in January and February, and you are just wondering at times is this ever going to come through. It is days like today that makes all the work worthwhile. I couldn't be happier,' said Waterford manager James O'Connor. 'The more wins we got, the more belief grew within the group. Beating Kilkenny in the semi-final was the turning point. The belief shot through the roof after that. And you see then what happened today. 'In a lot of our games, we have started very poorly. And we said today we are coming out of the traps at 100 miles an hour. We didn't want to be trailing five or six points after 10 minutes. It started from the very start today. We got 1-2 on the bounce. It set them up for a strong hour.' Pierce Quann, put through by Dylan Murphy, buried the goal inside 68 seconds. Cormac Spain and Shane Power, the latter following a Jack Power intercept, pointed to push them five clear inside four minutes. The May 2 Munster round-robin clash between the pair was level on nine occasions before a late white surge. The closest the gap was here was three. 'This campaign has been unbelievable,' continued O'Connor. 'No words can describe what it will do for the county. And what it will do for those players, which is the most important thing, is out of this world. There is going to be belief there now in a bunch of players and a belief in our county in what we can do and what we can produce. 'It gives massive hope. When you have a winning team, it shows we are doing things right within the county. Going forward, we must keep the standards and structures we have in place 'This is the base of the senior team over the next five to eight years.' Scorers for Waterford: C Spain (0-11, 0-7 frees); S Power (0-3); P Quann (1-0); G O'Shea (0-2); T Kennedy, E McHugh (0-1 each). Scorers for Clare: J Barry (0-3, 0-3 frees); P Rodgers (0-1 free, 0-1 sc), L Murphy (0-2 each); B Talty, I O'Brien, D Murrihy (0-1 each). WATERFORD: J Comerford (Ballygunner); C Lynch (Geraldines), D Murphy (St Mary's East), D Keane (De La Salle); B Penkert (Mount Sion), H Quann (Lismore), T Kennedy (Mount Sion); E Burke (Roanmore), G O'Shea (St. Mollerans); P Quann (Dungarvan), J Power (Ballygunner), S Power (De La Salle); D Murphy (Roanmore), C Spain (Ballygunner), J Shanahan (Erins Own). CLARE: L Talty (St Joseph's Doora-Barefield); Z Phelan (Sixmilebridge), N Doyle (Éire Óg Ennis), J O'Halloran (Sixmilebridge); E Crimmins (Newmarket-on-Fergus), D Kennedy (Ballyea), C Daly (St Joseph's Doora-Barefield); G Ball (St Joseph's Doora-Barefield), E Cleary (Ballyea); B Talty (St Joseph's Doora-Barefield), R Ralph (Clarecastle), J O'Donnell (Broadford); I O'Brien (Cratloe), P Rodgers (Scariff), L Murphy (O'Callaghan's Mills). Subs: J Barry (Inagh Kilnamona) for Ralph (29 mins); G Marshall (Parteen Meelick) for Talty (45); D Murrihy (Inagh Kilnamona) for Cleary (52); J Gibbons (Whitegate) for O'Donnell (61); D Mahon (Clooney Quin) for Murphy (64). Referee: C McDonald (Antrim).
Irish Examiner
3 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Tyrone clean sweep dreams live on as Farrell says farewell
All-Ireland SFC quarter-final: Dublin 0-16 (0-0-16) Tyrone 0-23 (0-5-13) Neither score detail truly tells the story of this bang average All-Ireland quarter-final but if one is more accurate, it's the modified one. As much as Tyrone's flourish put an unfair complexion on it, Niall Morgan's two-point free to cap their victory was appropriate. Tyrone were by far the more audacious team and they were rewarded for it. Five orange flags to none said plenty about the disparity in the daring of the teams. 'I suppose it wasn't a case that we came and said, 'Look it, we're going to go for two-pointers,'' insisted Tyrone manager Malachy O'Rourke. 'But we have a number of lads who are good at shooting from distance and it just opened up and the boys backed themselves to score. 'But there's no doubt it had a big impact in the first half. It meant that we went in leading by a point (0-11 to 0-10 at half-time) but we had four two-pointers, which is massive.' Earlier in the week, Dublin great Barney Rock spoke about his county being too wedded to percentage play and two-pointers being anathema to that low risk, high conversion policy. It turned out that way again. Twenty-five two-pointers in 13 games in 2025 is a miserly return for a team with Dublin's capabilities and intentions. All in all, they raised just four orange flags in their three championship games in Croke Park, three against Armagh and one in seeing off Cork last week. Not only had the worst record for them among the last eight counties in the championship, theirs was the poorest among the final 12 as well. Dessie Farrell accepted it was an issue but didn't believe it was the reason for his team's downfall. 'It's one of those things where you either have those natural instinctive kickers of the ball or you don't. We still should have been able to do enough. 'I think today's performance will be skewed on the fact that Tyrone kicked some of their two-pointers. But we wouldn't be talking about that if we kicked more of our one-pointers I think. It was something we didn't harp on (about). You either have those types of players or you don't.' For 50 minutes, Dublin didn't have Con O'Callaghan and again the fate of their influential captain coloured their championship departure. In 2022, he was missing for the defeat to Kerry and last year looked completely out of sorts and perhaps struck by the illness that had pervaded the camp prior to that All-Ireland quarter-final loss to Galway. Here, his heavily strapped left leg could only let him play for just over a quarter of this quarter and while he scored a point and generated a goal-scoring chance he was curtailed. A late point attempt that fell short as one did against Galway 12 months earlier spoke of another frustrating year for an uber-talent. 'We didn't make a big deal about it internally because we felt we were going to create enough opportunities in games not to have to worry about that,' said Farrell. 'Because sometimes you can make a thing of something and you end up forcing two-pointers or it impacts momentum and confidence and all of that sort of stuff.' Yet strangely quiet performances from the likes of Seán Bugler and Brian Howard wouldn't have been expected. On the flipside, without Michael McKernan, it mightn't have been anticipated Tyrone would be so fluent with their two-point kicks but Peter Harte led the way in that department early on. Wet, muggy conditions affected the game as a spectacle where player after player struggled even with gloves to control the ball. Dublin converted a woeful 45% of their chances and Tyrone weren't all that better with a success rate of 56%. Six shots dropping short for Dublin was a glaring statistic. Dublin had reason to query some of David Coldrick's late decisions but they would have been more disappointed with their display and allowing Tyrone to exert so much pressure on them in their half of the field especially in the second half. Tyrone were only a point ahead in the 65th minute when Stephen Cluxton stepped up to kick a two-point free wide but the quality of Brian Kennedy and Mattie Donnelly in the middle from the following kick-out engineered a score for substitute Ruairí Canavan and another introduction Ben McDonnell fisted over another three minutes later. When O'Callaghan then failed to hit his mark, Dublin's day was over. For Tyrone, this ballroom-for-improvement victory was another reminder like their win in Ballybofey that they are going in the right direction, even if at times it is not linear. The dream of the clean sweep of senior, U20 and minor crowns lives on. 'We got relegated in the league, we were disappointed with that,' reviewed O'Rourke. 'The championship was going better and we felt that we were improving. The boys were putting in a lot of effort and we just wanted to come down here today and put in a big performance. 'And I suppose we've smelt that improvement in a way. And obviously we felt if we got that we had a great chance of getting through and that's how it turned out.' Scorers for Dublin: C Costello (0-6, 2 frees); B O'Leary, P Small (0-2 each); S Cluxton (45), N Scully, K McGinnis, C O'Callaghan, C Kilkenny, L Breathnach (0-1 each). Scorers for Tyrone: P Harte (0-4, 2 tps); D Canavan, N Morgan (1 tpf, 1 45) (0-3 each); K McGeary (1tp), P Teague (1tp), D McCurry (2 frees), C Daly, R Canavan (0-2 each); N Devlin, E McElholm, B McDonnell (0-1 each). DUBLIN: S Cluxton; S MacMahon, E Murchan, D Byrne; B Howard, J Small, L Gannon; P Ó Cofaigh-Byrne, K McGinnis; S Bugler, N Scully, C Kilkenny; P Small, C Costello, B O'Leary. Subs for Dublin: C Murphy for K McGinnis (44); C O'Callaghan for B O'Leary (50); L Breathnach for N Scully (temp 57-ft); T Lahiff for P Ó Cofaigh-Byrne (59); R McGarry for S Bugler (65); T Clancy for E Murchan (68). TYRONE: N Morgan; P Hampsey, C Quinn; P Teague; R Brennan, K McGeary, C Quinn; B Kennedy (c), C Kilpatrick; S O'Donnell, C Daly, P Harte; D McCurry, D Canavan, M Donnelly. Subs for Tyrone: M O'Neill for S O'Donnell (temp 10-20); B McDonnell for R Brennan (inj 44); E McElholm for D McCurry (52); A Clarke for C Quinn (56); C Meyler for P Teague (temp 59-ft); R Canavan for P Harte (63); M O'Neill for K McGeary (68). Referee: P Neilan (Roscommon).
Irish Examiner
3 hours ago
- Irish Examiner
Anthony Daly: Waterford's need for glory was smeared all over commanding performance
When James O'Connor was interviewed on TG4 by Micheál Ó Domhnaill after Waterford beat Kilkenny in the All-Ireland minor semi-final two weeks ago, the manager spoke about how much Waterford needed that victory, especially after another disappointing season for the Waterford seniors and U20s, and particularly with the county's desperate track record at underage since they'd won the All-Ireland U21 title in 2016. It was obvious from the tone of James's interview how badly Waterford needed an All-Ireland. And that desire, savage hunger and commitment to return a Waterford team to the big stage was smeared all over Saturday's performance. Waterford really did need this All-Ireland. And they deserve massive credit for how they went to Thurles and just grabbed it with both hands. This is exclusive subscriber content. Already a subscriber? Sign in Take us with you this summer. Annual €130€65 Best value Monthly €12€6 / month
