Cork great Graham Canty reckons it’s time for Dublin’s rivals to quit moaning and to take a lead out of Mayo’s book.
The 2010 All-Ireland winning skipper admitted the Dubs are ‘ferocious’ but praised Mayo for steadfastly refusing to take a backwards step against them over the years.
Dublin only beat Mayo by a point in the 2013, 2016 (replay) and 2017 finals and drew with the westerners in the 2015 semi-finals and 2016 final.
Canty said: “I think the challenge needs to be to other counties - come up to the level Dublin are at. Mayo have seen that they can come and go toe to toe with Dublin in the business end of the season.
“It’s not just the odd league game they can win against them, they can push Dublin to the pin of their collars and draw with them in the latter stage of the Championship.
“So I think the challenge is for other counties to come up to that level, rather than saying, ‘Dublin have this and that’. Look to get your own show in order and see if you can compete with this Dublin team that seems to be like a machine over the last four or five years.”
Dublin and Mayo will meet again tomorrow evening at Croke Park in an anticipated sell-out encounter.
Canty said his gut instinct is that Dublin will come out on top and claim the five-in-a-row next month but he gives Mayo a fighting chance.
He said: “Dublin are still the team to beat. They have been for a couple of years. But when I look back, even from the start of the Championship I was wondering where was the challenge going to come from against Dublin, you were wondering and hoping maybe it would come from Mayo again.
“Because they have proved it on the biggest stage that they can compete with Dublin. So I thought if the challenge was going to come, it was going to come from Mayo. I think the belief that the group has shown is ferocious over the last number of years.
“The main drivers are still there and the core of the group is still there. That’s why the team is still here competing and they probably will compete very hard with Dublin at the weekend. But I think it’s going to be very hard to dislodge Dublin this year.”
Canty captained Cork to an All-Ireland semi-final win over the Dubs in 2010 and lifted the Sam Maguire Cup weeks later.
The two counties have gone in opposite directions since - Dublin winning 93 per cent of their Championship games to Cork’s 48 per cent.
That’s a stunning 52 wins from 56 Championship games for Dublin and Canty has marvelled at the style they’ve shown along the way.
He said: “What hasn’t changed with Dublin is their brand of football, they still play complete football, total football.
"They love nothing better than a team going toe to toe with them. That’s why the match-up between themselves and Mayo is always so fascinating. It’s two teams that go out to play head to head. They’ll play complete football.”
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