Jim Gavin Interview

I recently met  the Dublin senior football manager Jim Gavin. I spoke to him about his employment, his playing and coaching and management career. I also spoke to him about his views on dual players and the current format of the football championship, while Gavin also gave a very interesting insight into the philosophy of Dublin football.

 

Firstly I asked the current Dublin senior football manager about his role in the Irish Aviation Authority and life as a pilot “I am a Flight Operations Inspector and Aeronautical Officer. I work in the safety regulation division of the IAA or more specifically in the airline standards division.   My day to day job is working with the airlines to insure that they fly the aircraft as safely as possible in the interests of the travelling public and that they fly in accordance within Irish, European and international regulation. It is a very dynamic industry. Aviation is always progressing and growing. I have been involved in aviation for the last 25 years and I find it really a fascinating job and I am lucky to have it.”

 

“At the moment I am rated on the Avro RJ85 aircraft. I would fly as part of the pilot crew with Cityjet. I would do that a couple of times a month to keep my professional pilot licence which is one of the requirements of the job. I would also fly with the other Irish airlines. I have been flying as a pilot for 25 years. Previous to that I was in the military as an officer pilot for 20 years. That was my background.”

 

Jim Gavin played club football for Round Towers in Clondalkin. As part of the Dublin senior football team he won four Leinster titles, one National Football League and one All Ireland title, which the 43 year old describes as the highlight of his playing career. Gavin, who scored a point against Tyrone in the 1995 decider, described what it was like to play in an All-Ireland final “The All-Ireland success of 1995 was definitely the highlight of my playing career. An All-Ireland final is a unique occasion. As a player it is all about the players. There is a lot of tension. It is a game that you want to win and with that comes a lot of pressure from supporters. In some ways in Dublin you always get used to that expectation. They are always intense occasions because it is winner takes all. On that day we won by a point. Charlie Redmond got sent off in the second half. We played for nearly half the game with 14 men. We were quite in control when he got sent off. After that it was all hands on deck. We just fell over the line and we won by a point.”

 

Dublin hadn’t won the All Ireland for 12 years before their victory in 1995 and the Round Towers man admits there was a lot of expectation on that team to deliver “The team I joined were beaten by Donegal in 1992 and in 1993 Derry beat us in the All-Ireland semi-final. In 1994 I broke my wrist and got back on the bench for the final where Down beat us. It was a team that was up there and winning Leinster titles. Dublin were having great battles with both Kildare and particularly Meath at that time. There was a lot of expectation on that team and there was a sense of relief particularly among the senior players that we finally got over the line. It was a sweet feeling.”

Gavin joined the Dublin senior set up in 1992 where he was brought into the squad for the National League. Ten years later after winning a fourth Leinster title with the Dubs he decided to retire from playing “I retired from football in 2002. I had given 10 years. The mind was willing but the body was quite tired at that stage.”

It may have been the end of Jim Gavin’s playing career but it was only the beginning of his coaching career after a conversation with former Dublin manager Tommy Lyons “I had a long discussion with Tommy Lyons about it and where he saw me in the team. In fairness to Tommy (Lyons) he was very open and that is something that I would have learned to be with the players, to tell them as it is. That is what they want to hear. When I retired Tommy (Lyons) asked me to coach the under 21 team. We brought along Declan Darcy as well. Tommy (Lyons) was still the manger but the day to day coaching of the team was left up to Declan (Darcy) and myself. That was a great experience.”

 

Gavin led Dublin to their first under-21 All Ireland football title in 2003. He also worked with some players who he would later manage in the senior team “I would have been involved at that time with Brian Cullen, Alan Brogan, Paul Griffin, Conal Keaney and Declan O’Mahony, who are iconic players in Dublin. We went on to beat a very good Tyrone team in the final in 2003. That was the first time Dublin won the under 21 competition. That was a great occasion and a nice milestone to have.”

 

After being away from the Dublin set up for some time Gavin took over the under 21s again and led them to more success. He revealed that working with Dublin under 21 teams helped to prepare him for the senior role “I got back involved in 2008. I was invited back in to look after the under 21 team. We won another two All Irelands along the way. Certainly that would have prepared me, not only that I was familiar with the players, but more importantly that they were familiar with my particular style and all the coaching techniques. That was a very good form to practice some of the coaching and managing techniques that I have carried out with the seniors.”

 

Jim Gavin was ratified as Dublin senior football manager in October 2012. He admits that his military and aviation background have helped him in his management career in Gaelic football “There is a preparation phase that goes on there. From my military background and aviation background, that has giving me great tools in terms of managing people and in terms of setting plans up but your plans are only as good as your people. The teams that I have had success with there has been a cohort of really strong people in those teams.”

 

The 1995 All Ireland winner led Dublin to National League, Leinster and All Ireland success in 2013 and declared that it is “better” to win the senior championship as player than as a manager “As a manger I am there to serve the players to get them to be the best that they can be. We are looking after 30 individuals to get them to self-actualise and to get them to play as best that they can. Each of them have an individual skill. It is trying to blend them all together to get them to be the best that they can be. My management team and I are serving the players. As a player you are out in the field of play and in the heat of battle and can really influence games. Managers have tactics and set plays and you can influence matches by making substitutions and having a tactical game plan but ultimately it is a player’s game. Players play the game as I always say. It was a great experience to win the All-Ireland as manager and last year was a great experience as well winning the National League again and the Leinster but I always say it is a player’s game.”

 

Dublin retained the National League and Leinster title in 2014. They were strong favourites to retain their All Ireland title but after scoring 10 points from play in the first half against Donegal in the semi-final the Dubs were eventually beaten by the Ulster champions. Gavin admits that his side maybe lacked some composure on the day “We prepared meticulously for the game. I think that reflected itself in how we performed in the first quarter. We got some great scores off some really good moves. We opened their defensive system up and created lots of scoring opportunities and didn’t take some of the goal chances. The goals came right for Donegal just before and after half time, which is always challenging for a team to deal with. However still throughout the game we created 32 scoring chances. Just some of our shot selection wasn’t the best on the day.”

 

“I just feel that we lost a little bit of composure which would have served us well in previous games. I reference the game against Kerry in the previous year’s semi-final. They had pushed ahead and looked to be in a very strong position. We had kept our composure and created a high level of scoring opportunities and we happened to get those. Against Donegal some of those shots didn’t go over for us. That’s just one of those unfortunate days. That gives us plenty of areas to work on for the following season.”

 

Despite having won a number of trophies during his time in football, the Dublin manager admits that he finds it hard to accept defeat “Some days you are just beaten by the better team. In my sporting career I have lost more than I have won and I accept that. I don’t find it easy to accept and it is hard. When you don’t achieve victory there is a lot of self-pity but I realise that defeat is part of the process. There is a bit of a paradox there in that sometimes they grow as a team in defeat. I know for sure that this group of players having spoken to them in the last couple of months will come back stronger in the 2015 season.”

 

Jason Sherlock recently joined the Dublin senior football management team. Gavin explained what his former teammate can add to the set up “Jason was a prolific forward in his time. He has a lot of experience playing with the Dublin senior football team. He is a great thinker of the game and can really articulate his views and opinions on the game and he would see the way Dublin football should be played as well. So we have commonality in that regard.”

 

The Dublin boss went on to give a very interesting insight into the philosophy regarding the type of football that his county play and how he feels it is important for him to keep that style going “Our heritage and the type of football that we play goes back to that team that was beaten in the 1953 and 1955 All Ireland final. They eventually won it in 1958 with Kevin Heffernan. They introduced a bigger style of football including the creation of space, exploitation of space and pass and move. At the time Doctor Eamon O’Sullivan had great success with Kerry with traditional catch and kick. The big change was the way that generation of Dublin guys introduced a new concept of football and I like that particular brand of football. I was thought that way when I played at under age and at senior by Doctor Pat O’Neill. I am just carrying on the torch. Jason (Sherlock) has a similar view and that is why he is on board.”

 

“In Dublin football there is a particular way that the clubs will play and the clubs will play pretty similar to the way the senior team will play as well. That is the culture that the players are brought up on. I am not saying it is the right way. It is just the Dublin way.”

Cormac Costello has committed himself to the Dublin senior football panel for 2015 having previously played minor hurling and football for his county. Jim Gavin believes that if one of his senior players is involved in another sport it will have a negative impact on his skills as a Gaelic footballer “From the football perspective we go after a very skill based and technical game. All of our training sessions are based on the skills of the game. We do very little running with the players without the ball. Over 95% of our work is with the ball. I take a very skilled based approach to the game and if a player plays another sport, be it hockey, hurling or tennis, that’s a dilution of that player’s skill set. So if a player has a desire to play some other sport I will always try and facilitate that but ultimately I can only pick players who are highly skilled and that just takes repetitive practice on the skills of the game.”

 

The Dublin manager would also like to see a change to the current format of the senior football championship. However he is a great believer in retaining the provincial championships “I’m a traditionalist. I really like the Leinster Championship. The Delaney Cup is something which we have our goal set on to win every year. I like it because it is pure knock out and winner takes all. We have three different competitions in the calendar year. We have the National Football League which is one competition, the provincial championships are another competition and after that you have the All-Ireland series. We look at it as three competitions because if we are not successful in Leinster we automatically go into the All-Ireland series. So they are different competitions already. People say they are not but they are. So I would certainly retain the provincial competitions. I have gone to Munster and Connacht finals in both hurling and football. I have been to many Ulster football finals. They are great occasions. I would be extremely reluctant to let that part of our culture go in Gaelic Games but the games need to grow and it is not change for the sake of it.”

 

Gavin is of the view that teams should be guaranteed more than two games in any championship season. He also believes that counties should be rewarded for doing well in their province when it comes to the All-Ireland series “There is various things being proposed with a Champions league style format but I just think some type of a group format with a seeding based on if a team put the effort into doing well in their province they should get some reward in terms of getting a seeding in the various group stages. For any team and for the work that I know goes into any Inter County teams to be guaranteed two championship type games isn’t really acceptable anymore. I think if teams are guaranteed even four or five games more in a season that is a very good starting point.”

 

“The FRC back in 2000 under Eugene McGee who was on that committee along with people including Art McCrory, Pat O’Neill, Colm O’Rourke and Martin Kearney put together a recommendation to combine National League and the championship and I think that would be a good model to go down.”

 

Jim Gavin would like his team to play to the best of their ability “The way I see my job is every day with the senior squad is to get them to be the best that they can be. I realise that I am in a very privileged position to be the manager of the Dublin senior team. With that comes a responsibility to try and keep that flame of how Dublin play their football while at the same time trying to blend a squad that can play that style of football and ultimately be there to serve the players to get them to be the best that they can be. If I can get that done on a daily basis when I am with the players then I have done what I have been asked to do.”

 

Regarding the future Gavin would like to remain on as manager of his county as long as the players and the county board want him to “I would like to be there as long as the players and the county board want me to be there.  Obviously we are all volunteers from the players to everybody on my management team. Some of my backroom team have had to step away from it because of work commitments over the years. Who knows what’s around the corner for one in their employment as well? I do have a profession outside of my hobby of Gaelic games. Dynamics can change. As I say I have been involved for 18 years now between playing and managing and it has been a fantastic journey. I am just enjoying it at the moment.”

 

Copyright Seamus Egan 2015