If ever there was a case of deja Blue, this was it...

A SATURDAY evening after an All-Ireland quarter-final defeat to Tyrone and a Na Fianna man quits as Dublin manager.

- PAUL CAFFREY

It's not so much that I've seen his movie before - but that I was in it.

I didn't hang around after Tyrone beat us in 2008.

I informed my management team and county secretary John Costello straight after the game that I was gone - before gathering the players in the dressing room and telling them.

I then went to fulfil my media obligations and quickly made it known before the question was even asked.

I didn't want a post mortem to drag on for two or three days before stepping aside.

The previous year, Costello had called to say that he would be proposing me for another two years for me as Dublin manager, having already served three.

But he couldn't get it through. They wanted to see out the 2008 season first and then review the situation.

At that stage, we had been to two semi-finals and I felt that if we didn't at least get back to that stage and show signs of progression, it wasn't going to be good enough. So this was no spur of the moment call once we were beaten that day. Having not got the fifth year, the writing was on the wall.

If you lose by a last-minute point there can be some solace but, when you're comfortably beaten, it makes it fairly clearcut. I'd imagine there was a bit of that for Dessie Farrell last Saturday evening.

Mind you, that's where the similarities with his predicament and mine end.