There s no clear indication as to when the football season will get up and running, but it s still worth taking a look at some of the footballers who could light up 2021.
Some are on the cusp of burgeoning senior careers, others are returning from injury, the AFL or a break from the inter-county scene - but all have the potential to make a big impact in this championship . . .
Lee Gannon (Dublin)
One of Dublin s best performers in their All-Ireland U-20 defeat to Galway where he landed a long-range outside-of-the-boot point, Whitehall Colmcille man Gannon put down a strong season with Tom Gray s side. Used as a midfielder in the decider, he s a versatile sort and registered three points from wing-back in the All-Ireland semi-final win over Tyrone. A man in demand, he had a brief flirtation with the county hurlers, having been on the extended squad in 2019. And given that Dublin s cover isn t as deep in defence as other areas of the pitch - combined with the Dubs policy of introdu
Mayo will face no Croke Park sanction over the three members of their management team who gained unauthorised access to last month s All-Ireland final.
His team left every fibre, every cuticle out on that field and yet, for the last 10 minutes or so, Dublin were rolling home with all the ease of a pleasure steamer. We are just stenographers in their world now, tasked with transcribing the small detail of outlandish numbers.
They are an imperious, undramatic team built to work through these days logically and without fuss.
It’s true that nobody rattles Dublin physically quite like Mayo, yet where is the comfort in that after eight years without a league or championship win against the city team? So just take some pictures and place them in plastic like the others.
On the evening of May 19, 2012, Dean Rock was engrossed in the Champions League final between Chelsea and Bayern Munich when his phone lit up with a call from Pat Gilroy.
Dublin were due to play Louth in a couple of weeks in the opening round of the Leinster SFC, the first game of their All-Ireland SFC defence.
The optimist in Rock assumed the manager was giving advance notice of his championship debut, sufficient time to get his head around the occasion. Turns out, he was being dropped from the squad. It just transpired that, for whatever reason, I wasn t deemed good enough at the time, Rock shrugs now.