Dublin haven't been affected by the hype

John Fogarty 

PAT GILROY doesn’t want to get too ahead of himself but he can just about safely say his players haven’t been affected by the hype surrounding tomorrow’s All-Ireland semi-final.

Compared to previous occasions when he felt players were “suffocated” by supporters and the expectations placed on them, he believes there is more respect being shown to the panel this year.

“I think one of the things I’ve noticed — and some of the players have commented on — is that people are leaving them alone at the moment,” said Gilroy.

“They’re not talking to them about the game that maybe they did in the past. We’ve been given a fair bit of breathing from the general public, in fairness, and that’s a good thing because, as I’ve said before, the hype is great for the game and for the supporters but it’s not great for the team.”

When it was suggested to him supporters may have learned to behave after a succession of semi-final defeats, Gilroy stated they may have unintentionally made life harder for the Dublin players.

“It’s a factor but maybe it’s more down to the fact that people maybe have suffocated players in the past and it didn’t really work out well for the team. By just giving us a bit of space, certainly the mood is calm and relaxed.

“It [the hype] certainly hasn’t affected us this week. It just hasn’t manifested itself. Maybe it’s overstated but in the past players have been suffocated by too much attention close to the game and just weren’t able to focus on the game.”

Michael Darragh Macauley, whose father hails from Leitir Mhic An Bhaird in Donegal and has enjoyed some banter with his Ulster relatives “through the miracle of Facebook” as he puts it, agrees with Gilroy.

“I haven’t had a problem at all. You have one or two lads talking about a Dublin-Kerry final and that isn’t an option for us at the moment at all.

“We’re just about this game. Any Dublin supporter that looks past the semi-final is an idiot. We’ve lost too many semi-finals.”

Along with Stephen Cluxton and Alan Brogan, Barry Cahill has been on all four Dublin teams that have lost All-Ireland semi-finals since 1995 — 2002, ’06, ’07 and ’10. There would be a lot of hurt there down through the years because of those narrow losses.

“Some of those games are known as classics but you don’t want to be on the wrong end of the result in those sorts of matches. You’d much prefer to win ugly on Sunday by a point once you come out on the right side of it.

“A few of us have been involved in disappointing semi-finals so motivation won’t be lacking on Sunday but you could say the same about Donegal [their older players lost the 2003 semi-final]. They’ve a big incentive too.”

Cahill is set to line out at centre-forward tomorrow after playing at corner-back in ’02, full-back in ’06, wing-back in ’07 and coming on as a defensive substitute in last year’s last four defeat to Cork. He feels his experience of knowing what half-backs don’t like gives him an advantage in his more advanced position.

“That’s one way I’ve looked at it alright. I’ve marked a lot of good half-forwards down through the years so I have a fair idea what they’re trying to do and the sort of movements they make. You try to work off that as best you can.”

Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/x6xINLFGQ2o/post.aspx

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