There are no shortage of names being bandied out with regard to who’ll succeed Jim Gavin as Dublin senior football manager but, in truth, the number of realistic candidates are few and may be as little as two - with Dessie Farrell and Pat Gilroy carrying the strongest credentials.
Dessie Farrell
The 1995 All-Ireland winner has enjoyed success with a number of the current senior squad during his time as minor and under-21 manager and would likely be well received by the players. However, he has ruled out taking on the job in the past.
“My roots have been in the development squad stuff and through to minor and the natural evolution was to take on the 21s,” he said, immediately after the All-Ireland under-21 win in 2017.
“The senior is a whole different ball game. The time commitment that’s required at that level, like this is ridiculous but at senior level it’s gone to a whole new level and I have great admiration and respect for the men that take on the role in any county.
“It’s just where I’m at in my own career I can’t see it, to be honest.”
If it’s offered to him, however, Farrell probably wouldn’t be able to resist.
Pat Gilroy
May be the favoured choice of the county board given his track record and pedigree at this level having masterminded the landmark 2011 All-Ireland win.
The big conundrum with Gilroy is whether his work commitments would allow him to take on the role again, with the St Vincent’s man only able to take on the senior hurling manager’s job for a year before standing down in 2018. He hasn’t ruled out a second stint in the job in the past and if he can make it work professionally, it’s a live possibility.
Jason Sherlock
Managed the minor team without notable success and would almost certainly covet a shot at the senior job at some stage but the timing, given his association with the outgoing regime, may be off. Furthermore, he was briefly absent from the management team dugout earlier this year and whether his appointment would be warmly received by all remains to be seen.
Mick Bohan
Worked as a coach under Jim Gavin when Dublin won the 2013 All-Ireland and later with his father’s native Clare but he’s really made his name with the ladies footballers in recent years having just guided them to a third successive All-Ireland. Unlikely that he will succeed Gavin, however, having strongly ruled out the prospect in the past.
“Not a chance, not a chance,” he said when the prospect was put to him in December of last year. “Mark these words. I'll tell you one thing, at that level, not a chance. I could not do it.”
Paul Curran
A teammate of Gavin’s when Dublin won the All-Ireland in 1995, a year in which he was named Footballer of the Year, Curran has a decent record on the club circuit, reaching an All-Ireland club final with Ballymun Kickhams in 2013 and then winning a county title in Roscommon with Clann na nGael. Probably hasn’t left a big enough managerial footprint to take on a job as big as the Dublin one, however.
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