In 2009, the Dublin team I was playing in felt we were having a breakthrough year under Pat Gilroy. We cruised through Leinster, as has become common for Dublin, and we faced a big test against a floundering Kerry team which was ageing and, as we convinced ourselves, past their peak. A sign that they were past their peak was, for some of us, the return of Mike McCarthy. McCarthy hadn’t played for Kerry for the previous two seasons but he was recruited back into the panel after Kerry’s defeat to Cork in the Munster Championship. 2009 was a breakthrough…

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