Obituary: Seán Doherty, imposing captain who lifted Dublin's first Sam Maguire Cup in 11 years

Irish Independent

17 hours ago

That success, sudden and unexpected, had a revolutionary impact in popularising the game in the capital, where it had suffered from public apathy and disinterest.
Soccer, which was enjoying increasing television exposure, had been the more pervasive influence on young followers. The team managed by Kevin Heffernan and captained by Doherty offered a compelling and home-grown alternative.
For those accustomed to the popularity and success of the Dublin football team now, the difference then could not be more pronounced. Dublin defender Robbie Kelleher told the story of a teacher in Fairview in the early 1970s who asked a class of 15- and 16-year-olds to name one Dublin footballer. Nobody could.
After GAA president Dr Donal Keenan presented the Sam Maguire Cup to Doherty in the Hogan Stand in September 1974, that indifference evaporated.
Doherty had come into the Dublin set-up in the late 1960s when their stock was low. That gave him a deeper appreciation of success when it arrived. When he lifted the cup in 1974, he was already 28.
'I think one of the worst years was probably 1972,' Doherty said last year of the lean times. 'We played Cork in Croke Park in the league and there were only three guys on the Hill.'
Hill 16 soon became transformed into a feverish, heaving mass of Dublin football worship.
Doherty made his championship debut against Longford in 1970, and before the breakthrough he featured on teams that lost four out of six Leinster games across four seasons. ­Heffernan was appointed after another failed harvest in 1973 took Dublin in a new direction.
Heffernan wanted players he could trust: ideally, strong-minded types, highly motivated and intelligent. He did not chose his first captain lightly. Paddy Cullen had been nominated by UCD, but Heffernan decided Doherty was best suited.
Soon after the first meeting with the players, Heffernan called Doherty aside at training and told him the news. 'I was very surprised at that,' admitted Doherty, who became known as 'the Doc'.
'I was still an intermediate footballer. I hadn't played at the levels that Tony Hanahoe or Brian Mullins or Jimmy Keaveney or Pat O'Neill, who had played with UCD — those players had much more experience than I had.'
Doherty, physically imposing, strong in the air and uncompromising on the ground, went on to win three All-Ireland medals, adding further All-Ireland medals in 1976 and 1977, as well as six Leinster titles.
Heffernan's personality was all over the team. 'He wasn't that interested in fancy footballers,' Doherty said. 'He wanted honesty. A good hard-working group that were big and strong and capable. And that were prepared to work their butt off for the duration of the game. At that stage we were training for matches lasting 80 minutes, and we caught a lot of teams on the hop with our level of fitness.'
Doherty played in five successive All-Ireland finals and was a sub for the sixth in 1979, after which he retired.
His performances in the breakthrough year in 1974 earned him an All-Star award at full-back. He captained the side again in 1975 when a youthful Kerry team caused a surprise by beating them in the final.
After that loss the Dublin captaincy went to Tony Hanahoe, but Doherty remained a steadfast figure in the back line until his final year, the last of his 105 games for Dublin coming against Wicklow in the 1979 Leinster quarter-final.​
The 1975 All-Ireland final began a riveting rivalry with Kerry, a match remembered for an incident involving Doherty and his Kerry counterpart Mickey 'Ned' O'Sullivan.
The Kerry captain made a weaving run in the first half, shipping a succession of heavy challenges before Doherty stopped him in his tracks.
The Kerry captain ended up unconscious and spent the night in hospital, missing the trophy presentation. The teenage Pat Spillane stepped into the void as vice-captain.
Doherty and O'Sullivan became extremely close over the years, and perhaps the most symbolic example of the friendship that developed between Kerry and Dublin despite being fierce rivals on the field of play. The two remained in close contact and were centrally involved in a 50th golden jubilee reunion in Kenmare this year.
Doherty did speak in the past about the incident in the 1975 final to explain that it wasn't his intention to end O'Sullivan's part in the game. O'Sullivan, remarkably, said that the incident never came up in their numerous subsequent conversations.
'We never talk about it at all,' the Doc confirmed this year when I asked him about the incident. 'We met up and shook hands. Things happen and they happen in the spur of the moment and it's not something that is done behind the referee's back. It's a split-second decision.' They were, he said, 'the best of pals'.
Seán Doherty was born in Glenealy in Wicklow in 1946. In the early part of his life he moved to south Dublin and became involved with Ballyboden Wanderers, which later became Ballyboden St Enda's. Before he joined the Dublin panel, he had played with Wicklow at under-21 level. He also had a spell as a player-manager with St Anne's.
Having started out as a plumber, building up his own business, he later bought a pub in south Dublin in 1983. In recent years he remained active in helping organise reunions and was in the process of arranging the annual Dublin players' trip to the Algarve when I met him before the Dublin-Kerry reunion.
It was evident how much he cherished those enduring friendships. He was a popular and personable personality. After he retired he became involved in a Dublin senior management team with Mullins and Kelleher, serving just one year in 1986.
When that management team dissolved, Doherty stayed on as a selector with the next manager, Gerry McCaul. In their first year they won a terrifically exciting national league final against Kerry on a baking hot day in Croke Park, and in 1989, they dethroned Meath in Leinster before losing the All-Ireland semi-final to Cork.
Doherty married Teresa Curran in 1971 and spoke appreciatively of her support.
'I was playing football, and hurling with the club, I had three or four sets of gear. And Teresa always had the bag in the hallway, one for the county and one for the club. When I was going out I never had to ask.'
Seán Doherty, who died on July 7, is survived by his wife Teresa and his children Michelle, Seán, Julianne and Anthony.