They were the only county to hold Pat Ryan’s side goalless in the championship, and the first since Waterford managed it in April, 2023. But a series of spurned scoring chances and a poor return from their forward line paved the way for their downfall.
“Yeah, definitely there would be regrets,” said Smyth, talking at a recent county jersey launch in Dublin. “We probably should have been a couple of points closer before that surge at the end which would have helped us a bit. A couple of frees or a couple of wides that another day might have gone over for us.
“I think you seen what Cork did beforehand and after playing us, in terms of their performances. To know that we had a chance to stop them … but look, you could look back on every little thing in that game. It was disappointing.”
When it was suggested that they may have given Cork too much respect, in trying to contain them, he disagreed.
“I wouldn’t say that, no. If you look at the first half probably there were a couple of frees that we missed and a couple of shots from play that you would have backed the lads to convert on another day. We shouldn’t have went in [at half-time, five] points down but that’s the way it was and you’re probably always chasing then. We started to really step forward and to push just too late in the game. We still had a couple of goal chances towards the end. If one of those goes in you don’t know what happens.”
Defensively, notably in the full-back line, Dublin had much to be pleased with.
“We pride ourselves on our full-back line. Eoghan [O’Donnell] and John Bellew that day were beside me, like, [are] two of the top full-backs in the country. Definitely, I think we got our defensive shape right that day. The three lads in the Cork forward line were fairly tearing it up all year so, yeah, it was definitely an area that we looked at. It was one positive you could take out of it I suppose.”
Smyth, who completed his first year as captain, regards the handpass and steps rule as areas that could benefit from more consistent application and enforcement.
“The handpass, it’s such a difficult one to go after. It just can be frustrating, the inconsistency of it, when it’s called. I don’t know how you solve that.
“Sometimes it just ruins the flow of the game when there are one or two calls. As they say, the stats are that there must be 19, 20 throws in a game. Other than that, as a defender you’d want the steps called a bit tighter but those are small rules, there’s not much you’d want to change at the moment.”
Dublin are looking to improve their fortunes under new management and with what Smyth regards as a more settled panel after a lot of upheaval.
“I think the turnover in the panel over the last two years has been too high. We just want a bit of consistency on that and hopefully the core of the panel stays together from last year.”
The loss of players disrupted momentum, he feels, and stunted progress.
“Yeah, you can’t have that and be successful. Obviously there’d be a lot of reasons; coming out of Covid lads were going travelling, a couple of other lads were coming to the end of their time in terms of their careers and it just all came together in that year or two.
“Yeah, hopefully now the younger lads who have come through over the last two years, that experience that maybe came a year or two too early will stand to them.
“You always want new faces to freshen things up each year but you need a core there that have been together two or three years and hopefully we have that this year.”
The Clontarf hurler, eight years on the senior team, has yet to formally meet Niall Ó Ceallacháin, the Dublin manager appointed to replace Micheál Donoghue.
“I’ve chatted to him a couple of times just. It’s exciting. He has a good reputation in Dublin hurling with Na Fianna. A good backroom team behind him by the looks of things so I suppose over the next couple of months it’ll be about getting to know him and how they work, and him getting to know us.
“I’m sure he has a good knowledge of most lads through Dublin club hurling.”
He remains optimistic that Dublin will be stronger next year.
“I think last year was a step, a step of progress, just getting to a Leinster final. The final [performance] wasn’t what we wanted but it was an experience, a new experience, for a lot of the younger lads,” concluded Smyth.
