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Kieran Cunningham on Jim Gavin: "What Jim learned from Tommy Lyons was how not to be Tommy Lyons"

Kieran Cunningham and Paul Kimmage joined Joe Molloy for the Sunday Paper Review on Off the Ball....



Kieran Cunningham on Jim Gavin...
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Kieran Cunningham on Jim Gavin: "What Jim learned from Tommy Lyons was how not to be Tommy Lyons"

Kieran Cunningham and Paul Kimmage joined Joe Molloy for the Sunday Paper Review on Off the Ball.

The attitude of the Dublin team to the media has come up for discussion over the last week about their apparent disinterest in media duties. 

"I've thought about this a lot," Cunningham told Joe Molloy, adding: "And I've asked Jim about this - about why he reacts and people often compare them to Kilkenny because there are similarities in how relentless they are and their suspicion of the media...and Cody and his ruthlessness. 

"But you watch Cody at the end of All-Ireland finals - Cody was Michael Flatley on mescaline - he was leaping all over the pitch. There was primal screams - there was everything. He was letting it all out. 

"And it's very deliberate by Jim and I think it's rooted in his experiences as a player and of his background team. If you look at him, Jason Sherlock, Declan D'Arcy, Mick Deegan - they're all of that '90s generation, and that '90s generation feel that hype cost them All-Ireland's and they'd been built up too much and it cost them All-Ireland's, particularly in 1992 when some players did fashion shoots and radio shows etc. 

Dublin manager Tommy Lyons consoles Jason Sherlock in 2004. Image: ©INPHO/Morgan Treacy

"And I asked Jim on the press day before the All-Ireland about managers he admires and it's very hard to get him to name any names and he eventually named the managers he played for and he round them off and he mentioned Tommy Lyons, even though he was only there a year under Tommy as a sub. 

"But what Jim learned from Tommy Lyons was how not to be Tommy Lyons. Tommy Lyons used to talk about how managing Dublin used to be the biggest gig in town...he compared it to managing Manchester United.  

"When Dean Rock is taking that free, he's (Gavin) looking down at the ground - his nerves are at him, he's in bits. But, he sees all the camera men and the photographers around him and he will not let the mask slip."

The full Sunday Paper Review can be heard here:

Kieran Cunningham on Jim Gavin: "What Jim learned from Tommy Lyons was how not to be Tommy Lyons"

00:00:00 / 00:00:00

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