Gannon confirms Pat Gilroy will be joining Dubling backroom team for 2023

Pat Gilroy, who managed the Dublin senior footballers to All-Ireland glory in 2011, will be part of Dessie Farrell's backroom team for next year.

Reports in the last week had indicated that Gilroy, who subsequently managed the Dublin hurlers in 2018, was being coaxed back. His involvement for 2023 has now been confirmed, with Lee Gannon telling RTÉ Sport at the launch of the new Dublin jersey: "I can confirm that Pat's going to be in with us now. He's involved alright."

Gannon, who made his inter-county senior debut in the league against Armagh and featured prominently as Dessie Farrell's side reached a successive All-Ireland final, did not specify what role Gilroy will have, adding that "there was no mention of a coaching capacity or a mindset capacity, whatever it would be, we don't really know yet".

Gilroy's management of the Dublin from 2008 to 2012 laid the foundations for the success that followed as the county won seven All-Irelands in the period from 2013 to 2020. The St Vincent's clubman is also a successful businessman and no doubt will be looking to apply such an acumen in whatever role he ends up taking in his return to the inter-county football scene.

There had been speculation after Dublin's loss to Kerry in that pulsating last-four clash in July that Farrell's time at the helm was coming to an end, but Gannon was never expecting any change.

"The whole team knew he was going to be on staying on for the next year, to try and build that building block for us," he said.

"Kerry were the best team in the country this year. We are trying to get to their level, hopefully we can match that. It's all about knuckling down as a team, trying to understand ourselves a little bit more and how we play our best football."

Gannon,