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Nostalgia

Here's how the Dubs won their last football league title...20 years ago

There’s a chance to end that two-decade famine next Sunday in Croke Park.

DUBLIN FANS HEAD to Croke Park this Sunday hoping to see their team claim the Division 1 football league title against Tyrone.

However not too many of them will remember the last time that the league trophy was the property of the capital side.

That’s because it is remarkably 20 years since the Dubs were last crowned football league champions.

They have endured close misses since then as they lost out to Cork in the 1999 final in Páirc Uí Chaoimh and were also defeated by the Rebels in 2011 in Croke Park.

But you have to go back to 1993 for the scene of Dublin’s last triumph in a league final when they got the better of Donegal after a replay by 0-10 to 0-6. The drawn game had finished 0-9 apiece.

Current Dublin boss Jim Gavin is the link between that success and the present day outfit as he lined out at wing-forward in that replay triumph. While current selector Mick Deegan was also a member of that Dublin team.

There was plenty spice to those clashes between those two sides as the previous September, Donegal had been crowned the 1992 All-Ireland football champions with a 0-18 to 0-14 victory over Dublin.

Brian McEniff’s side had been outsiders entering that game but they sprung an upset to make history by winning the title for the first time.

Here’s highlights from that 1992 showdown.

YouTube: Bryansford Gael

And the following spring’s league final clashes certainly had a bit of needle to them.

A fight breaks out between Donegal and Dublin players
Pic: INPHO

In the drawn match Dublin had Keith Barr and Charlie Redmond sent off by referee Brian White. While there was controversy in the replay when Tommy Carr was sent-off for a kick at Donegal’s Brian Murray and was slapped with a six-month suspension, which was eventually reduced to four on appeal.

Dublin manager Pat O’Neill consoles Tommy Carr after he is sent off
Pic: INPHO/Billy Stickland

But despite those setbacks Dublin ground out a four-point victory to claim their ninth and most recent league title win.

The Dublin team in that replay was:


DUBLIN:
John O’Leary (captain); Ciaran Walsh, Dermot Deasy, Paddy Moran; Eamonn Heery, Paul Curran, Mick Deegan; Jack Sheedy, Paul Bealin; Jim Gavin, Tommy Carr, Niall Guiden; Paul Clarke, Vinny Murphy, Morgan Doran.* John Calvert and Charlie Redmond played in drawn game, Jim Gavin and Paul Clarke started in the replay while Keith Barr and Mick Galvin were brought on as substitutes in the drawn match.

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