History tells us all empires eventually crumble. Even the mightiest powers succumb to the ravages of time eventually. For the famous Kerry football team of the 1970s and 80s, the end took place in Balboa Park in San Francisco, of all places, in 1987. On Tuesday, Pat Spillane shared the details of it with us. Kerry were beaten by an All-Stars selection by 'about 30 points' the day after the mother of all sessions in Fisherman's Wharf.
"The legs were gone, the mileage was up...I think the All-Stars beat us by about 30 points. We were the saddest bunch of fellas to ever represent Kerry. O'Dwyer never usually got angry and we never trained on tour and this was the only time ever he got cross.
You'd have to believe that the day of reckoning will eventually come for the Dublin footballers. But then again, there are reasons to think we are long way from Dublin's Fisherman's Wharf moment. Dublin's odometer seems infinite these days. Legends have retired. Coaches have walked away. But incredible footballers continue to emerge from the Dublin assembly line, like Terminators at the Skylab factory.
It's hard to think of a legendary sport team who've experienced the degree of turnover that Dublin has without enduring a lull in form. The likes of Paul Flynn, Diarmuid Connolly and Bernard Brogan retired, but Dublin's forward lines remain lethal. Former Footballer of the Year Jack McCaffrey walked away from the game after the 2019 All-Ireland. It was a shame for football fans, but Dublin weren't phased.
Last year, Dublin matched the great Kerry team by winning its eighth All-Ireland in 10 years. Five Kerry players started both the 1975 and 1986 All-Ireland finals: Mikey Sheehy, Pat Spillane, Paidí Ó Sé, Ger Power and Ogie Moran. Only three Dublin players started the 2011 and 2020 finals: Stephen Cluxton, James McCarthy and Mick Fitzsimons. All three are legends in their own way, but these days, they feel replaceable too.
Paul Mannion spoke Tuesday about the reasons why he's taking a hiatus from the GAA, and in doing so, revealed the extent of the commitment involved in playing for Dublin.
"It’s just the day-to-day and week-to-week commitment that you have to give to be at your best when you’re in that time. It’s not just training hours, it’s travel time, it’s prep time, it’s meeting time, it’s making sure you get home to get your sleep in, eating the right food, recovering properly. Doing your homework, reviewing the opposition or your own matches, it is a huge commitment when you add all that up.
This is the personal demand required to meet the standard that Dublin have set. Mannion's contribution off the bench was pivotal in Dublin winning the 2020 All-Ireland final, but such is the competition for places in the Dublin team that he was barely missed during Dublin's unbeaten League run in 2021. Look at what Cormac Costello has done this year.
We know Dublin will be beaten some day, but it won't be for the reasons that leveled Kerry back in 1987. Should a Dublin player lose the hunger, there's a queue of elite players only delighted to slot in.
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