The Last Dance might just have one more sashay left in it, with reigning All-Ireland champions Dublin likely to keep the band together until they're booted off-stage, according to former Tyrone ace Sean Cavanagh.
Dublin’s 2023 run to the Sam Maguire had a distinct 'once more from the top’ feel to it after Dessie Farrell convinced Stephen Cluxton, Jack McCaffrey and Paul Mannion to return to the fold while veterans James McCarthy and Michael Fitzsimons signed on for a tilt at yet another Celtic Cross.
Once McCarthy, Fitzsimons and Cluxton had become the only men to collect nine All-Ireland titles after victory over Kerry last July and all three had backed-up that achievement with All-Star recognition, many assumed several – if not all – of those Sky Blue veterans would walk off into the sunset, arms raised aloft.
But, creeping towards Christmas month, mum’s the word. We haven’t heard much talk of retirement from the Dublin stalwarts – although, as we know, that wouldn’t be Cluxton’s style anyway.
Dean Rock, who played a reduced role from the bench this term, seemed closest to packing his inter-county bags in the aftermath of the victory over Kerry. McCarthy appeared to be at least thinking about it.
It’s surely unlikely we’ll see all of these guys back in harness come 2024. Or is it?
RTÉ GAA analyst Cavanagh reckons the holders won't abdicate voluntarily. The team that supplants the Dubs will have to beat them first. All of them.
"The right time to go is never there. Most people would argue the right time is really a year or two before you’re ready," Cavanagh said this week. "I get the feeling that they won’t step away because of the success they had this year. They’ve earned the right to do that.
"I’m a big basketball fan and it’s a bit like that Chicago Bulls team in ’98, 'the Last Dance', you wonder had they been able to come back one last time… for the [Dublin] guys to step away and be happy with their lives, they have to step away when somebody’s beaten them.
"They would hold that resentment if they stepped away now. They’d feel they could always have gotten one more. Because of that factor, I think they’ll all come back.
The Sky Blues are box office material. If the most decorated players on the panel do suit up again in the new year, it will only add more intrigue to the championship.
Come summer, all the usual pretenders could be jockeying for position.
"That will be a good thing for the championship. You’ve still got that dynamic that Dublin are there to be cut down," Cavanagh said. "The Cluxton factor, with him back, the buzz that that brings. It’s good for the game if they do come back and it’ll be good for them if they walk away only when they have nothing left to give."
After an uninspiring Division 2 league campaign and a massive scare in their Leinster semi-final clash with Kildare, Dublin looked far from champions-in-waiting. But, timing being everything, an unexpected demolition of Mayo in the All-Ireland quarter-finals was followed by a Brian Fenton-inspired final-four win over Monaghan.
Dublin then edged the Kingdom by two points in the decider and incredibly, five weeks after looking like also-rans, were All-Ireland champions.
The Demolition Dubs of the last decade are gone. The biggest trophy in the land is up for grabs. Whoever wants it most will probably get it. Cavanagh is expecting a wide-open race for Sam in the summer of 2024.
"I don’t think they’re anywhere near unbeatable," the three-time All-Ireland winning midfielder said. "We’re not talking about Dublin in those terms any longer. I’m back in the frame of mind of around June last year where you’re thinking ‘if any team bolts, they could go all the way’.
"Galway should have been better last year, Tyrone should have been better. Donegal have Jim McGuinness back. There’s genuinely about seven or eight teams that could win Sam."
Another county with eyes on winning it all will be Derry.
They have a new man in charge. One Sean Cavanagh's knows well. Mickey Harte's appointment as the Oak Leaf county's manager a few short weeks ago sent shockwaves throughout the GAA landscape. Those rumblings were felt most acutely in Tyrone, where Harte had ruled imperiously for two-plus decades.
Cavanagh, an on-field general of Harte's through three Red Hand All-Ireland-winning seasons, still can't quite get his head around his former manager's decision.
"It's just so bizarre," Cavanagh admitted. "When the news came out, the first thing I thought of, in terms of longevity, Mickey was with Tyrone since about the mid-90s with the minors and then he left in 2018 or 19. For that 25 or 30 years he reminded me of Alex Ferguson.
"What way would Alex Ferguson have gone had he managed at Manchester United for 25 years and then gone across to Man City or gone across to Liverpool? The whole idea of it is just very strange and I still find it difficult to imagine Mickey Harte standing on an opposition sideline to Tyrone.
"He coached me in 2002 with the U21s so I was with him for 17 or 18 of those years. I knew how passionate he was for Tyrone. Everything was 'Tyrone, Tyrone, Tyrone’, nothing else mattered.
"He was a brilliant man for having that siege mentality. Tyrone was against everyone and that’s why every Tyrone man had to be deeply rooted and you forgot about everything else that was going on around you.
"I’m sure he’s thought [managing against Tyrone] through – I hope he has – because that is a likely enough scenario. He’s obviously comfortable with it, I just find it strange. I don’t think I could be standing on an Armagh touchline or a Derry touchline trying to beat Tyrone… it’ll be a spectacle at the very least."
AIB, proud partner of the GOAL Mile, has teamed up with Kilkenny hurling captain Eoin Cody and former Tyrone footballer, Seán Cavanagh to encourage communities in Ireland to 'Step Up Together' and take part in the GOAL Mile this Christmas.
