JOHN LYNCH: Beware a wounded Dublin

By John Lynch

TYRONE and Dublin have met in many big All-Ireland Championship matches over the years so to see them clashing this Sunday in a league relegation clash is a bit strange.

From our own point of view we definitely need Tyrone to get a result.

I felt we were a bit unlucky against Donegal the last day. Some of the football we played in the first half was our best since the Championship last year.

The goals that they got at the end of each half were real killers. We missed a chance to get a point or two in the closing stages and we probably deserved to get something out of the game. Even a draw wouldn’t have been a bad result.

The loss was disappointing but there were still few positives to take from the match. I thought Nathan Donnelly and Johnny Munroe both did fairly well. Donnelly has been a real revelation and I’ve always liked Munroe, he is strong tough lad, and good at bombing forward. He had a chance at a goal late on against Donegal which could have won it.

Going back to the Kildare game when our resources were really stretched the lads dug deep and showed that we have cover in different positions and boys able to step in and get a result.

However we now need the bigger names to start coming to the fore. The likes of Conor McKenna, Niall Sludden, Kieran McGeary, Paudie Hampsey are now back at it and will need big performances this weekend.

The boys took a break after the Championship and have slowly come back together. You just can’t switch form and intensity on and off but we need to pick it up now.

Tyrone are staring down the barrel now and come up against a Dublin side who are really struggling.

They might be the only team in Ireland in all four divisions who don’t have a league point on the board at this stage, which is amazing really given what they have achieved over the past decade.

Tyrone should be going into this match confident in their own ability. At the end of the day it is Tyrone who are All-Ireland champions now, not Dublin so we shouldn’t be overawed by any opposition coming to Omagh these days.

Dessie Farrell and Dublin are getting serious criticism at the minute. There is talk about unrest in the camp and that might be a worry for Tyrone. Maybe they will rediscover that spark coming into the home of the All-Ireland champions. They won’t need anymore motivation to get themselves back on the road again.

Dublin’s defeat against Kildare probably worked against us. If they got a result in that one they might not be coming to Omagh with so much on the line and with a point to prove. But now they know they are heading for Division Two if they don’t get a win on Sunday.

We will see who benefits from the two week break and if both sides can get key men back from injury. They have the likes of Con O’Callaghan maybe to come back which would make them a more formidable team while we will be hoping Petey Harte and Ronan McNamee are closer to being ready.

Conditioning wise both teams will have a better idea of where they are at.

It’s a match we have to get a positive result from and definitely not lose. The last thing we can afford is to go down to Killarney looking for two points against Kerry. They are on a different level right now in Division One to everybody else, in terms of conditioning and organisation. We need to have our Division One status secured in these home games with Dublin and Mayo before that last one in Kerry.

No doubt Brian and Feargal are letting the boys know that their performances have been below par. They won’t want to be part of a management team which sees the All-Ireland champions relegated to Division Two after so many years playing in Division One.

You can guarantee they will have plenty of choice words for the squad to get them back on track again but if we lose to the Dubs we are in serious trouble.

Jim Gavin obviously was one of the best managers ever and had a team focused on winning the All-Ireland year in year out. He was blessed to have a talented group of players who were second to none and a strong bench with players able to make a significant impact when they came in.

They were able to adapt their system of play to meet whatever challenge a side put up to them. Dessie Farrell came in to a team of winners and was going to have to win over their respect. You had a camp who gained all their success under someone else so they are now listening to a different voice and it’s clear they are undergoing something of a transition with so many influential men like Stepehan Cluxton, Kevin McManamon and Micahel Darragh MacAuley retiring.

Maybe some of those boys who have won everything are still struggling for motivation too after so much success. The only way Farrell can quiet the critics is by starting to win matches again.

They are coming out of an unprecedented era of success and it’s not easy to go again after that. You have a manager trying to get players to adapt to his way of thinking and clearly that hasn’t been straightforward.

But they have so many talented players that they will bounce back, let’s just hope it’s not this weekend.

READ MORE…John Lynch – My GAA life. Click here…