Dean Rock axed from the Dublin panel - it’s unthinkable these days
The Ballymun Kickhams star is the county’s all-time leading scorer in League and Championship but was once deemed surplus to requirements.
It was May 2012 and Pat Gilroy informed the young marksman that he had been dropped off the Dublin panel just months after joining it. Rock’s head was spinning.
“There would have been times when you really doubted yourself,” admitted Rock, who is 30 now, feeling in great shape and striving for a seventh All-Ireland winner’s medal tomorrow.
“I probably thought at the time I was getting a call to say I was playing against Wexford in the Championship.
“It just transpired that for whatever reason, I wasn’t deemed good enough at the time.
“And I just remember the next day going down to Garristown, where I live, and running and running for hours until my Dad (former Dubs great Barney) had to come down and pick me up.
“So it was just that resilience piece that you need as a sportsperson. You’re going to have your setbacks. I certainly had them and I could easily have packed it in and walked away.
“But I kind of made a promise to myself that I was going to do what I could. Luckily enough the club came to the rescue for me that year. We won the club championship and that set me up for when Jim (Gavin) came in 2013.
“So yeah, I suppose from there, I never looked back.”
That kind of personal adversity, he says, is something that many of his Dublin team-mates have had to come through. He points to this year’s hottest prospect Robbie McDaid as an example.
“He’s probably had the same journey as myself,” said Rock.
“He’s probably been dropped off the Dublin panel numerous times but that perseverance and resilience for him in particular, he stuck at it when he easily could have went, ‘Look, I’m not going to make it with the senior team’.
“He’s flourishing at the moment, and that’s just testament to him and to other guys as well for sticking at it in the hard times.
“I think that’s really part of our success is that resilience and perseverance within the group.”
Diplomatically, Rock says everyone is entitled to their opinion in terms of the debate about Dublin’s dominance of the game, but he argues that on All-Ireland final day the margins have been so narrow for the Blues.
He admits it was probably “a blessing in disguise” that there was a delay to the Championship this year, with the League start coming so quickly after the All-Ireland and with a new manager in Dessie Farrell settling in.
“I think it was a reprieve, even from the mindset perspective,” Rock stated.
“It meant lads could have a good quality club championship with their clubs and not the usual two or three weeks you get at the end of the year.
“It was nice going up to Poppintree Park in Ballymun and train there, where we trained when we were kids. It was hugely refreshing.
“It obviously hasn’t gone unnoticed the struggles we’ve had with Ballymun over the years in terms of getting our best players on the pitch. So to be able to train with the club lads all summer and give that a full whack was one of the most enjoyable moments in my career.”
And one that could end with another Celtic Cross pocketed.
“Look, every year takes on a life of its own,” said Rock. “This year it just happens to be you are going for six in a row.
“There’s guys there, Cian Murphy from Thomas Davis and Dara Mullin from Kilmacud, for who it is their first year.
“We never put an emphasis on the amount of All-Irelands, or whatever number it is. It’s just about the next year and just looking at each game at a time.
“Our sole focus is on Mayo.”
