In his 2005 autobiography, Dessie Farrell wrote how Kerry were responsible for “the first day of many that ended with me leaving Croke Park in a pretty dark mood”.
He was referring to the All-Ireland minor final of 1988. Farrell had hit 8-8 en route to the decider and was the star turn on a Dublin team that was hotly fancied to regain the Tom Markham Cup.
But Kerry shut down their vaunted attack and won comfortably. They limited Dublin to just 0-5, with Farrell contributing only 0-1. He and Brian Barnes had fed off full-forward Senan Moylan all year and Kerry just cut out the source.
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“Kerry went and did their homework on us,” says Brian Stynes, Dublin’s centre-forward and a future teammate of Farrell’s with the Dublin seniors. “We were favourites that day and it wasn’t a great Kerry team I don’t think, from memory.
“Up to then they weren’t tipped to win it but they just locked our full-forward line down and did very well against our big fella, Senan Moylan.
“They got two goals, Kerry, which obviously gave them the impetus and we just couldn’t get anything going in the forward line.”
Given that the two counties had dominated football through much of the 1970s and ‘80s the likelihood was that the best from those two minor teams would be facing off at senior level in the coming years, but it never happened.
Remarkably, given their current dominance in Leinster and Munster respectively, Dublin and Kerry never won a provincial title in the same year between 1985 and 2005.
They appeared to be on a collision course in the 1992 All-Ireland semi-final though Kerry suffered a shock Munster final defeat to Clare, who took their first title since 1917.
When they played in the League semi-final the following year, the most high profile meeting of the counties between 1987 and 2001 and a game that Dublin won by two points, Farrell missed out due to an injury he picked up when playing hockey the previous winter.
When Kerry finally broke Cork’s stranglehold in Munster for good in 1996, Meath did the same to reigning All-Ireland champions Dublin in Leinster the following Sunday. They wouldn’t win another provincial crown for seven years.
Throughout the ‘90s and into the 2000s, Meath were Dublin’s barometer, not Kerry.
“The only time you’d play them was in an odd League game and that was probably a bit later on,” says Stynes. “But it was a huge game against Meath.
“It was amazing because at the time, at our height, it was all northern teams that were getting to Croke Park every year.”
It wasn’t until the introduction of a ‘back door’ in 2001 that their paths finally crossed again, as they were paired in a memorable All-Ireland quarter-final in Thurles.
Injury ruled Stynes out that season but Farrell was captain of a Dublin team that desperately needed to make a breakthrough.
“I was vice-captain with him for a bit,” Stynes recalls. “He was a good captain. The guys all respected him and he was a very good player and he’s a very articulate guy as well. He had all the attributes to be a captain.”
Farrell started reasonably well, clipping a nice point off his right foot but Dublin were struggling to keep pace after Aodhan MacGearailt goaled for Kerry. The captain placed Collie Moran for an open goal, however, though his handpass was slightly overcooked and Moran blazed wide.
Even allowing for the fact that he was stretching, it was still probably the miss of the year from Moran. As it turned out, it wasn’t even the miss of the first half.
Soon afterwards, in the scramble that ensued after a Ciaran Whelan point effort had rebounded off the post, Farrell found himself in possession no more than a couple of yards out and with goalkeeper Declan O’Keeffe stranded. Somehow, he managed to hit the crossbar and Kerry cleared their lines.
They led by five points at half-time and though Dublin hauled them back and went in front late on, Maurice Fitzgerald’s famous sideline ball secured them a replay which they won comfortably.
“There was a tide of emotion in the aftermath of that incredible draw,” wrote Farrell in his book. “It was not one I could readily join in.
“The sight of the open goal was framed in my head. The miss wrecked my performance, the miss wrecked our chance.”
And then, Farrell and Kerry largely returned to being ships in the night. The counties met again in the 2004 quarter-final but he had ruptured his cruciate ligament in the previous game against Roscommon and was long retired when they clashed in the 2007 semi-final.
In the seven years he spent managing Dublin minors and under-21s there was only one meeting - the 2012 All-Ireland minor semi-final which his side won en route to Dublin’s only title at that grade since 1984.
And tomorrow’s All-Ireland semi-final is their first Championship clash since he succeeded Jim Gavin in December 2019.
Farrell may have immediately delivered an All-Ireland but the feeling that it was Gavin’s team persisted, while there was little glory attached to that pandemic-affected Championship.
Dublin surrendered the title in a very unsatisfactory manner against Mayo last year after Farrell had served a 12-week suspension for flouting training restrictions, while a first relegation in 27 years followed this spring.
But, if he presides over a victory against Kerry tomorrow and adds an All-Ireland, he’ll have truly emerged from Gavin’s shadow and put his stamp on the team.
“I agree,” says Stynes. “I think the first year they weren’t even able to train much together because of Covid and everything.
“You were just playing on what you’d done the year before really because you didn’t have a lot of time to change anything or mould much, which is a sign of Dessie’s maturity and he’s a smart guy as well.
“So he left it the way it was and it was successful but then last year obviously a few cracks started to happen and they lost that game and Dessie had to step in to really do his management because he had to mould these young guys.
“If he can get an All-Ireland with this group with so many guys finishing up in the last few years, I think it’d be a great managerial feat for him and he’d definitely be up there like any other manager that wins one then.”
Kerry may have been largely incidental to Farrell’s playing days, but they look set to define his management career tomorrow, for good or for bad.
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