Riches abound in the depth of Dublin's talent: few county teams in history have boasted a squad as fearsome as Dublin's. They started the All-Ireland final, for example with two Footballers of the Year on the bench, with another, Jack McCaffrey carried off injured early on. And yet they got over the line, primarily because they could spring Diarmuid Connolly from the bench. The year previous, their squad depth was the reason they saw off Mayo: the latter's bench had no response to a dazzling turn by Cormac Costello. This year saw the emergence of Con O'Callaghan, who turned the Leinster final into a kind of personal plaything.
Dublin's rivals in 2018 face a terrible spectre: The Dubs' production ranks are not going to stop. Heck, they are not even going to stand still. In an enjoyable podcast interview with Dublin fan group Hill 16(the podcast is entitled Blue is the Colour and can be found near the top of the sports podcast charts at the moment), Diarmuid Connolly picked the Dublin player he expects to make a breakthrough in 2018.
Citing the ferocious competition for places within the squad, Connolly plucked one player who has particularly impressed him: Brian Howard.
Keep your eye out for one guy, a lad from Raheny who played centre-back for the under-21s, Brian Howard. I think he is going to come on next year. In the next six to eight months you'll see Brian Howard put his hand up for a Dublin jersey. He came on in the Championship this year and didn't put a foot wrong. I'm surprised they didn't play him a little bit more this year, to be honest. Even in training, he is a leader. He's not a loud guy, he doesn't get in your face, but you can see he's a leader by the way he goes about his work.
He's a little bit like Con, when Con came in. Con would be a quiet enough fella, but you knew he was getting on and doing the work behind the scenes. We only get a select few hours together a week. If we meet up four times a week, that's only eight to ten hours together a week. If you think about it, that's a small amount of time.
But it's about what you do when you're not with Dublin: are you doing your recovery, or this or that. And if you're not, then you'll start falling behind.
You can see the guys who are doing it, and you can see them getting confident. And then they'll turn up on a Saturday morning for an A vs B game, hit you a shoulder and leave you on your arse!
Howard was on the fringes of the squad for the All-Ireland final, and came off the bench against Kildare in the Leinster final this year. Dublin's depth is frightening, and according to John Costello's rip-roaring annual report yesterday, the county have yet to fully exploit it: "It may surprise some but the penetration of the GAA in certain areas of Dublin remains relatively low".
All the best, everyone.
