Senior footballers look to improve their clincial edge

Wed, 3rd February 2016

Dean Rock is hoping Dublin can show a more clinical edge in this Saturday night’s NFL Division 1 clash against Mayo in Elverys MacHale Park (7.0).

While the Dubs defeated Kerry by two clear goals in last weekend’s NFL opener (2-14 to 0-14) they also spurned a number of goal-scoring chances and twice hit the woodwork late on when Johnny Small and Jack McCaffrey almost hit wonder goals.

Dean was among those players that were left to rue one of the goal-scoring chances – a first half opportunity when he combined with Paul Mannion.

“ I should have finished that one – but that was one of many chances that we should have scored. Look, it’s better to be creating the opportunities than not be creating them, so that’s a positive in itself.

“Just next weekend against Mayo, hopefully we can execute a bit better as well.”

“MacHale Park will be a different surface to Croke Park, so that will bring a challenge in itself. And then the travelling part of it as well. So it will be a completely different scenario than it was against Kerry.

“Mayo bring a great level of intensity to a game, and that was probably something that we weren’t used to prior to that (2015 drawn All-Ireland semi-final) where we played Mayo, and it was something we had to quickly get our heads around.

“Mayo always bring that physicality and intensity that a lot of other teams don’t. That’s the thing that stands out for me really – the high-octane games when ourselves and Mayo come up against each other.”