Dubs haven't gone away you know - despite brain drain

It may be only February and the early stages in the 2022 senior inter-county football season but teams are already under pressure to perform.

With the compacted formatting of competitions this year managers and their coaching teams do not have as much time to prepare and fine tune their sides, as was the case in pre-Covid times.

Teams in all four divisions are rightly being scrutinised and Allianz League form may well be a more accurate barometer of championship form than ever before.

Of all the teams in the Allianz League, few are analysed to the same degree as Dublin. We are all well aware of their success, winning eight All-Irelands in 10 years. Jim Gavin's Dublin teams had a win rate of 91.7%, winning games by an average of 10.8 points.

Simply incredible stats.

Huge credit must also go to Pat Gilroy and Dessie Farrell in how they managed All-Ireland winning teams in that period.

While there has been a very public debate on funding for various sectors of GAA in the capital, there are some coaching-led traits of the Dublin teams that led to their unprecedented success, which have to be considered when weighing up their present position as they prepare to avoid three defeats in a row in their league game against Mayo this evening.

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While managers are the figureheads of teams, when it comes to players being prepared for their role on match day, it is the coaches that are the vital facilitators. Dublin have had an array of influential coaches such as Jason Sherlock, Declan Darcy, Mick