The Jim Gavin era of Dublin football was perhaps the most imperious dynasty the GAA has ever seen - but it did not come without a few stumbling blocks along the way.
When Gavin took over Dublin from Pat Gilroy ahead of the 2013 season, the Boys in Blue were smarting from an All-Ireland semi-final exit at the hands of Mayo the previous summer. Gavin's side immediately won revenge, with Sam Maguire returning to the capital after an All-Ireland final victory over the same opposition in 2013.
With the victorious 2011 team having been bolstered by the arrival of youngsters such as Jack McCaffrey, Paul Mannion, Ciarán Kilkenny, and Dean Rock, it seemed as though this Dublin team were bound for domination. Donegal had different ideas.
The now infamous 2014 All-Ireland semi-final was one of the great masterpieces of Jim McGuinness' first spell in charge of Donegal, with Dublin completely swept away in one of the greatest shocks in championship history. Donegal were full value for their 3-14 to 0-17 victory, and Dublin were left hurting after a loss completely out of the blue.
Of course, Gavin's men went on to win the next six All-Ireland titles, and the 2014 semi-final is now cited by many as the inciting point of the immortal six-in-a-row team's run.
31 August 2014; Alan Brogan, left, and Paddy Andrews, Dublin, console eachother after the game. GAA Football All Ireland Senior Championship, Semi-Final, Dublin v Donegal, Croke Park, Dublin. Picture credit: Dáire Brennan / SPORTSFILE
Paddy Andrews, who came off the bench for Dublin that day in Croke Park, reflected on the game this week, and revealed the "naive" approach that had cost the Dubs.
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Paddy Andrews addresses Dublin's approach in 2014 semi-final defeat
In a fascinating feature on the GAAGO YouTube channel, Andrews sat down with Armagh's Aaron Kernan, Kerry's Marc Ó Sé, and Michael Murphy - captain of Donegal that Sunday in 2014 - to reflect on their inter-county careers.
St Brigid's forward Andrews was asked for his thoughts on the most infamous loss of Jim Gavin's reign (in fact, the only championship loss of Gavin's reign).
Andrews said that he felt in hindsight that the squad had been arrogant in their approach to the game, not anticipating that Donegal would have done their homework on how best to ruthlessly expose the shortcomings of their new style under Gavin.
The seven-time All-Ireland winner called Ireland's approach to the game "naive" - and reaffirmed the popular belief that the mentality which led to the six-in-a-row was born out of the embarrassment of the defeat to Donegal:
We were champions at the time. There was a responsibility as champions, you need to expect people are going to watch what you guys did, how were you successful?
We prided ourselves on playing very traditional football, similar to Kerry. Our philosophy under Jim, we'd won the All-Ireland in 2013 playing this really attacking style of play.
As players, and as forwards, it was magic to play. We would go training and training was 15 v 15.
We kind of had this mentality that we were going to be the team to break the blanket defence. That was our North Star. Winning the All-Ireland was magic, but you need something else then to try and retain it. That was it, then, we were going to try and retain it.
The reality of it was that Jim McGuinness and other teams were looking at us going, 'well, Dublin play this way, we know they're going to attack. There's gaps, there's man-to-man, we can drag players around the pitch...he's going to follow you no matter what.'
Michael Darragh Macauley ended up at fullback on Gallagher. It's naive from us at the time, not to expect that analysis to be done. That's where we were at.
The reality is...I'd always say the players have to take responsibility in that. We didn't prepare for all eventualities. We didn't expect that, because we weren't humble enough to do it. You get your feedback on the pitch, and we got it.
I don't think we would have won the next six All-Ireland titles without that game. Not a chance.
It's a fascinating insight into how the Dublin mentality switched ahead of the most successful run in Gaelic football history.
Andrews was one of a few Dublin players who retired in the afterglow of that 2020 triumph, though some of his former teammates from that 2014 game return for this season in search of yet another All-Ireland medal.
The Dubs get their Leinster championship campaign underway on Sunday against old rivals Meath, with throw-in at 4:30pm at Croke Park.
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