Dean hopes perfect practice makes permanent

Dublin has produced some of the great free-takers of the modern era in Gaelic football - Jimmy Keaveney, Barney Rock, Charlie Redmond, to name three.

Barney's son Dean now carries the mantle of free-taker - it's pressure he has shouldered to great effect this season, and last.

“I’m certainly a better free-taker this year than I was last year,” says Dean.

Speaking ahead of Sunday’s Croke Park meeting of Dublin and Westmeath in the Leinster SFC final (4.0), the Ballymun Kickhams man confirms that he practices his frees before and after each session and then twice more a week on his own.

“I go through my own pattern twice away from the group. I’d kick over 100 balls by myself.

“To be the best, you have to keep practising, put in the hours of training.

For me, I enjoy getting the bag of 10 or 12 balls and going out to the local field and kicking.

“It’s an aspect of my game that I pride myself on. I have a responsibility to the team, that when I get a free, to stick it over the bar. If I’m not doing the practice, I’m not able to do that for the team.

“I take responsibility for that, and I enjoy going out practising and doing it on the game day as well.

“Certainly, you have to be very obsessive about it because, at the end of the day, you have a huge responsibility to the team that, it it’s tight, you have to stick the ball over the bar.

“I’m always trying to improve, get better and get those extra inches on it.

“Throughout the years, you grow and grow in confidence in terms of kicking frees on big days.

“At this moment in time, I’m extremely confident as a player and a footballer. The confidence comes from knowing that you’ve performed a kick 100 times in the last two or three weeks and that you’re going to be able to put it over the bar."

Dublin fans are hoping Dean can maintain his current form against Westmeath on Sunday following two excellent displays to date against Laois and Meath.