Con O'Callaghan comes into Dublin’s 2024 Leinster football championship opener on Sunday playing closer to goal and off the back of his most prolific league campaign yet.
The Cuala forward scored 3-34 in total over the league, top scoring for Dublin and setting a new personal league record too. He scored 2-18 from play or marks, with 2-12 or 75% of that being converted from within the opposition 21-metre line. He also slotted five frees in there, all of which he won himself.
Whereas most top modern forwards favour coming out on the loop, within that 'Con danger zone' the Dublin attacker is at his most comfortable and presents the biggest threat. Meath beware, O'Callaghan already has 2-15 from play across his six league and championship starts against the Royals. So if he continues to be deployed and retained closer to goal, the three-time All-Star is set to carry some best-yet form into this championship.
It took the reigning champions until the third game of the league to start effectively utilising him. But given the opportunity, he turned their campaign around and Dessie Farrell’s team ultimately scored more in 2024 (13-142) than in any previous league campaign he, Jim Gavin or Pat Gilroy have been at the helm for.
In the first game of the league against Monaghan, the six-time All-Ireland winner had just three possessions inside the opposition 21, and just one more in the subsequent game against Mayo. They lost both matches.
The percentage of his in-play possessions occurring within the opposition 21 then rose from 15% in the opening two games, with no shots from play, to 2-12 and 45% in the remaining six games as Dublin won five in a row and reached the league final.
Against Roscommon he had 12 involvements inside the 21, seven against Kerry, eight against Derry, six against Galway, five in 47 minutes against Tyrone, and nine in the league final.
The consistency of ball into him still varied, but with it he wins frees, makes assists, links the play sharply, creates space for others with his excellent movement, and provides a huge option with his trademark back door cuts. Left inside, O'Callaghan is also an outlet for a long ball, proving over the years to be brilliantly flexible and capable in the air.
After beginning the league without even a shot from play against Monaghan, having also failed to score in the 2023 All-Ireland final in his last outing in blue, Dessie Farrell reacted by deploying O'Callaghan around the middle against Mayo.
He scored 0-02 but Dublin's attacking game was blunted and they lost again. Despite his athleticism and rounded skill set O'Callaghan's lines of running don't add much to the build-up further afield, when at the other end he is one of the best in the country.
From round three on however he was redeployed to the attack, just deeper, and Dublin kicked on with the 2017 Young Footballer of the Year to the fore. Not only did they increase their ratio of kickpasses to O'Callaghan when in a 1v1 position, but they also experimented with some long balls in on top of a loaded inside line.
Against Roscommon 11 attempted kickpasses were sent into O’Callaghan, nine came in around him against Kerry. Against Tyrone all five of the kickpasses he secured led to scores before he came off early. In those three games Dublin scored a combined 10-55. Some passes broke to his team-mates, others were aimed at him but won by the likes of Ciaran Kilkenny and Paddy Small or an advanced Brian Fenton.
Dublin's attack is even more rounded in 2024 with O'Callaghan left inside for longer and the team sending a number of contestables in on top of his zone throughout the game.
To create openings for this kind of delivery Dublin also increased the speed of the first phase of their attack. Which is how they first cross halfway after gathering possession in their own half.
Dublin’s lowest scoring game was in the defeat to Mayo, when they scored 0-14 and just 31% of the first phase of their attacks went through midfield via a kickpass. In the highest scoring Dublin game of the league they scored 5-18 against Tyrone with a kickpass getting them across midfield 61% of the time in the first phase.
Following Cormac Costello’s injury against Roscommon, O'Callaghan was the primary free-taker for the remaining games. Nevertheless his scoring tally from play in the eight games was also his highest ever in the league, easily surpassing the 0-17 kicked in last year's competition. The 28-year-old’s previous best league scoring average came in 2021 when kicking 3-07 over four games.
Having been injured for the 2022 All-Ireland series, O’Callaghan has not missed a league or championship game for Dublin in the 24 matches since, with that set to extend to 25 on Sunday. It's been just the third league campaign since his debut in 2016 when he's featured in all of the games.
Dublin's previous top-scoring league campaign was in 2014 when they accumulated one point less than this year's total, albeit with one extra game played.
So with the Dublin team and Con O'Callaghan arriving at Croke Park in their best ever scoring form at this stage of the season, if the league is anything to go by we can expect some big tallies to be put up in the pursuit of 14 Leinsters in a row.
Watch Dublin v Meath in the Leinster Football Championship quarter-finals on Sunday from 4pm, follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app and listen to updates on Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
