Ryle Nugent's bold policy of giving youth its chance was in evidence last night as the grizzled old timers sat out Ireland's victory in Moldova.
And anyway, as we have long maintained, at this stage in Dunphy's punditry career, it's probably unwise to use him in two games in such quick succession.
But Dunphy is not being silenced. We got his take on 2FM's Game On programme.
He is disquieted by the argument that because Wales could only draw with Georgia that Ireland's win on Thursday needs to be seen in a new light. He wasn't having that.
And so we got onto the subject of Wes Hoolahan.
We've got to the point where Dunphy's ardour for the chap is actually making Wes unpopular in some corners of the internet. This is something we should caution against.
Dunphy - and Damien Duff - are of the view that Wes is peculiarly unpopular with Martin O'Neill. According to Eamo, O'Neill is "curiously reluctant to acknowledge Wes's contribution."
O'Neill possibly believes that Wes gets enough praise without him needing to chime in. Eamo takes a dim view. And he made another 'grand' claim on the part of Wes. Although, really, we could argue about how grand a claim it is.
He doesn't play Wes except when it's absolutely unavoidable. He refuses to name him in his praise. He was glowing in his praise of James McClean but as Damien Duff observed on RTE last night, he seems curiously reluctant to acknowledge Wes's contribution, which is outstanding, of course. We've got Austria and Wales in the next three games and if we start with the centre halves we started with last night and if we start without Wes Hoolahan, we ain't going to the World Cup.
Nothing that happened in Wales last night validates stupidity on our part. And the stupidity on our part is that we have a player who'd probably get into the England team, cos I saw England as well, and I saw France play Bulgaria. I was watching football all weekend. And there's very few players, if any, better than Wes Hoolahan.
Speaking of the manager directly, Dunphy does not believe he stands equal to the men he should be measured against.
No, not Alex Ferguson, Jogi Loew, or even Jack Charlton. Better men than that.
What worries me is the capriciousness of the coach. If I compare him to Cody, if I compare him to Joe Schmidt, if I compare to the people in other sports in Ireland, I think, this guy, he's not up to it.
One Scottish fan found the tone of discussion a bit much to take and texted in that we should get over ourselves, we're joint top of the group, etc, etc.
Dunphy didn't think much of that text.
Maybe, that's why Scotland are where they are...
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