Dublin's Niall Scully: 'You can’t just go on blindly and hope that you figure it out'
NIALL SCULLY DIDN’T waste any time.
After years of being a serial Leinster and All-Ireland winner, an early provincial championship exit last Sunday was a jolt to the system.
But his video analysis routine of Dublin games didn’t alter because they were toppled by Meath in Portlaoise.
“I would’ve went home and not watched it and then woke up on Monday and had a watch. You’re just trying to look for learnings. I’d be more than be happy to park it but I do think you have to address that and you can’t just go on blindly and hope that you figure it out.
“Just throw it on and go through it. Now in fairness, I’d be more so looking at my own individual performance before I’d be looking elsewhere.
“I don’t think, as a team and as a collective, you can’t have any complaints from the performances of both sides on the day. Meath are a good side.
“They came with a game plan and they executed it. Down the last 10 minutes, we’d a lot of unforced turnovers and our execution was off. Against Kerry down there (in the league), all them opportunities that we had came off and the execution was correct. It’s probably a fine balance between the two.”
Scully was yesterday in Cork as SuperValu announced a five-year renewal of their All-Ireland football sponsorship announcement.
He spoke in advance of the lunchtime group stage draw that revealed Dublin were drawn against the Connacht champions, the Ulster runner-up, and Derry. But the prospect of meeting highly-rated sides was never an issue.
“You’re gonna have to play these teams eventually. That’s an exciting prospect. A provincial winner at home in their venue is quite exciting.”
Still of the belief that Dublin have the capacity to win the All-Ireland this year?
“Absolutely, yeah.”
That confidence is matched by an appreciation that they have areas to target for improvement. Possession retention from kickouts cropped up as a problem on Sunday.
“Previously when we were playing Meath, you would know that you’re playing them. They were always a big, physical group, so I definitely felt that at the weekend and they obviously targeted our kickouts and got a good bit of joy out of it.
“If you’re not winning your kickouts, you have less of the ball and less plays for us to attack. I think the rules do suit the way that we’re trying to play. But again, at the weekend, you’d a huge wind and us kicking against the wind and a press coming on…and we just couldn’t figure out how to get our hands on the ball. The kickouts are probably a lot more crucial to what they would have been previously.
“And it’s no different, we go after everybody else’s kickouts no different to how somebody would come after ours.”
Using injuries and the lack of a Croke Park advantage as reasons for their defeat, are batted away by Scully.
“I’ve played a fair few seasons and we have gone through the Super 8s and the new system where you are playing games outside Croke Park and for us and the supporters it is a huge experience.
“It is something that we kind of look forward to. I know my family love coming together and travelling to games like that. I don’t see that as something that we buy into, no.
“I don’t think the injuries have been a fair reflection on why we lost – I have the belief that the squad that took to the pitch on the day is good enough to get over the line.”
Amidst the disappointment over their performance and the setback they suffered, there is a belief in Dublin’s ability to recover.
“It’s more being disappointed in the performance knowing how we could have played But, the setbacks that we already had, we’ve been relegated to Division 2 and won an All-Ireland from Division 2. We’ll treat this no differently than we would have treated that. We need to regroup.”
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