Dessie Farrell is best man to lead Dubs, bar none - James McCarthy

Dublin captain James McCarthy has dismissed any lingering question marks over the tenure of manager Dessie Farrell and insists the Na Fianna man is the ideal candidate to lead the county back to the All-Ireland summit.

Farrell agreed a two-year extension to his contract to remain in the game's hottest hot seat a fortnight ago despite successive seasons without an All-Ireland final appearance.

Having won the previous six titles before that, some pundits and punters had begun to query whether the Boys in Blue needed change at the top. The players, however, never had any such doubts, insists McCarthy.

"From a player group, we've full faith in Dessie," the Ballymun Kickhams clubman said. "There's always going to be talk out there when you're not successful. Two seasons in a row, two semi-final defeats - that's the bottom line. So from our point of view, we're thinking ahead and trying to give a good crack.

"Dessie's a great manager and a great coach and he knows the players so well. He's managed so many of us at underage. We definitely think he's the man to try take us back to the All-Ireland final next year.

"We're delighted he's staying on we just want to keep on building. We're all looking forward to giving it another crack next year, to try and go on and win the Sam Maguire.

"We obviously had a rocky league campaign, and definitely didn't want to get relegated. But we only have ourselves to blame as players and management - we just didn't perform.

"We had a hard look at ourselves before the championship, had a great few weeks training and I thought we played some good football in the championship."

Dublin's season may have ended early but not without a rousing finish to that semi-final with Kerry - the latest classic of the