‘They died with their boots on’ – Dessie Farrell hints at end of an era for Dublin ‘warriors’

Dessie Farrell admitted the end was inevitable now for some of Dublin’s greatest ever footballers after tonight’s shock loss to Galway in the All-Ireland quarter-final in Croke Park.

The Dublin manager didn’t mention any player by name but speaking immediately after the one-point defeat, speculated about the end of an era, explaining that it was “understood” among the group that some of the most experienced members were in their final season.

“That era, that we understood it many a couple of seasons ago that everyone looks back to, has moved on,” Farrell said afterwards.

“It’s a different generation of players now. I’m sure there’s some of them in there who will be considering their future. It might be the last time that we see them play for Dublin.

“They’ve been brilliant warriors. They died with their boots on today. But there is another generation of players in there who have the hunger and desire to want to continue and go on to wear the Dublin jersey with pride and honour and I’m sure they will do that.”

Inevitably, there will be speculation about Stephen Cluxton (42), Mick Fitzsimons (35) and James McCarthy (34), the only three footballers to have won nine All-Ireland medals.

Asked whether anyone had declared that this would be their last year, Farrell explained: “It’s understood. They’re the type of players that don’t want it necessarily to be about themselves. You don’t have to dwell on that. It’s inherent though in players’ understanding in terms of where things are at, in terms of their evolution of the squad and what the future might hold.

“You avoid trying to contrive or manufacture hooks like that or chips on our shoulder. We want fellas to go out and express themselves and be the best they can be.”

Dublin led by five points at two different junctures in the first half but their second half performance was riddled with errors as Galway surged to a first championship win over them in 90 years.

“We haven’t had the chance to review it yet but stating the obvious, that second half performance wasn’t good enough,” he admitted.

“Great credit to Galway. We knew they’d come at us hard in that second half and throw the kitchen sink at it and we just found it hard to come up with the answers they posed. Ultimately, we came up short.”

“We knew Galway would bring greater intensity and we’d have to deal with that. They played very well and denied us time and space. We struggled to break it down, which we had been good at over the recent games against that type of opposition but we found it hard to get shots off under that kind of pressure. Hats off to Galway. They were far superior in that second half.”

Asked for reasons for Dublin’s fade-out, Farrell said: “We just seemed to run out of energy in the second half. The pep just wasn’t in the step. Execution was of and we were turning over ball but then when we turned them over, we struggled to get up the field with pace which is something we’re normally very good at doing.

“Our ability to get forward quickly and get back quickly definitely diminished in that second half. Ultimately you can’t afford a performance like that in any game, let alone for the entirety of the second half.”

Farrell was also quick to alleviate Con O’Callaghan of any blame for a late wide which might have sent the game to extra-time.

“Con was heroic in the last couple of minutes,” he stressed. “You could really see him trying to do whatever he could to eek something out of that. He kicked a great score just before that. It was a very tired kick but it was credit to him because he wanted to take on responsibility and you’d back him every day of the week, it just wasn’t to be today.

“Again, hats off to Galway. They were immense in that second half and thoroughly deserved their win.”

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