Dublin can take “energy” from recent failures to fuel their bid for All-Ireland glory this year, says Cian O’Sullivan.
Given the phenomenal run of success that the team enjoyed during O’Sullivan’s highly decorated career, there was little to be gained from harking back to defeats given that they suffered so few as they continually gathered silverware.
But the All-Ireland semi-final defeats to Mayo and Kerry in the last two years can potentially give them an edge in this year’s run-in.
O’Sullivan contrasts that with Kerry, who are bidding to retain the title having chased it for so long and cited how Dublin struggled with that after his first two All-Irelands in 2011 and ‘13.
He said: “I certainly think last year there would have been massive motivation for Kerry, however many minors they won in-a-row, the talent that was in the squad, they just didn’t seem to be getting the performance to the level of where their own county was expecting of them and a new manager comes in and they win the All-Ireland for the first time in eight years. That’s a long time down in Kerry.
“I think that hurt, those questions would have definitely been a driving force for that Kery squad last year.
“Now I’m looking at this year, that box was ticked, massive release of pressure. How do you reframe your motivating factor here? What is driving that group on? What is really propelling them to win it again?
“I just know from the experience in 2011, again, in ‘14, we had two bites at the cherry to try and deal with back-to-backs before we got it then in 2016.
“We played an epic game against Kerry in the semi-final in 2016 and then a replay against Mayo in the final, so it takes a monumental effort.
“For us, it took that experience of failing it twice before we figured out that you kind of have to go into a different space here, you have to develop something different then. People questioning you or people writing you off or Joe Public expecting something of you, you have to just put that all to the side.
“It’ll fiercely impressive if Kerry get to that space after one year.”
In contrast to that, Dublin don’t have to manufacture their motivation after near-misses in each of the last two semi-finals as another one approaches against Monaghan on Saturday, with talk of a final against Kerry widely anticipated.
“Yeah and that’s what I think it makes it so intriguing for me,” O’Sullivan explained. “I’m not part of the group anymore so I have no clue how they’re framing this season.
“Are they using that? In previous set-ups we would have completely ignored all that stuff in the past.
“That was a distraction whereas now there is energy to be gained off that, there definitely is, so are they using that? I don’t know. We’ll see.”
There’s every chance that they are going by their last outing against Mayo, as they blew the League champions away with a second half showing in which they arguably played their best football in a number of years - a performance that many doubted was still in them.
“I think everyone was hoping and expecting to see that,” said O’Sullivan.
“I was a bit unsure if it could just be turned on at quarter-final stage but they did which changes the perspective for the remainder of the season.
“There has been talk all year about an open Championship but then we are looking ahead to a couple of weeks possibly to the most unopen of finals so.
“Mayo were hotly tipped after going down to Killarney against Kerry having won the League, they looked very very good and it was hard to know when the last time Dublin beat them by that margin.
“To beat them by that, that’s a real signal about the capacity in this Dublin team.”
O’Sullivan announced his retirement in June 2021 after struggling with injury for a number of years having won eight All-Irelands but three of his former teammates, Stephen Cluxton, Mick Fitzsimons and James McCarthy, have the potential to win a ninth this year.
That would put them clear of O’Sullivan, Michael Darragh Macauley, Kevin McManamon and Philly McMahon, all of whom have retired since Dublin’s last All-Ireland win in 2020, as well as the famed Kerry quintet of Pat Spillane, Mikey Sheehy, Denis ‘Ogie’ Moran, Ger Power and the late Paidi O Se.
"When you start looking at these guys as individuals more so than you look at them as a team, maybe deep down in their own heads that is a factor or motivation but it definitely wouldn't be vocalised within the group or a collective motivation that they're trading off,” said O’Sullivan.
“It's always been about a team and a unified goal that everyone is equally part of. There are individual accolades up for grabs, I'm sure the lads are aware of that, but as the team have been doing their prep this week as they have doing their prep for the whole season I'd be very surprised if that was ever factored into the conversation.”
