Ger Cunningham has strongly refuted claims of upheaval in the Dublin hurling dressing room.
Danny Sutcliffe left, Michael Carton left, Conal Keaney left and so did Mark Schutte.
Dublin Hurling can’t afford to keep losing the cream of their crop.
Football is regularly noted as the reason for the loss of Dublin hurlings jewels. It doesn’t cover all their absentees, however.
Michael Carton left the set-up last year and claimed that Dublin “haven’t progressed under current management.” Conal Keaney also criticised management after he opted out of the panel.
Positve is some serious young hurlers coming through for dublin but awful result tonight,havent progressed under the current management!
— mick carton (@firemanmick7) July 2, 2016
Tactical a shambles tonight Dublin need all their best hurlers playing to compete #changeneeded #dublinarebetterthanthis
— Conal keaney (@ConalKeaney) June 11, 2016
Danny Sutcliffe, a man who was hailed as the saviour of Dublin hurling after he famously ran rings around Kilkenny great Tommy Walsh in 2012, also upped ship and left. More recently, Cuala man Mark Schutte left the panel, only to join the footballers later on.
Dublin have only five players in their panel now that played in 2013. 11 players have left Tipperary since then, Waterford have 13 of their 2013 players still on the panel and Clare have only lost one member of their squad since 2013.
These departures unsurprisingly lead to rumours aplenty emerging from the Dublin hurling camp.
Ger Cunningham, speaking on The GAA Hour Hurling Show put this loss of players down to a lack of ability to commit and injury, rather than any discontent with management or upheaval in the dressing room, however. He referenced the stringent demands that are attached to life as an inter-county hurler and claimed that this demanding lifestyle is more suited to younger players.
“There’s evolution in relation to all teams. Teams are always evolving… It takes a lot to commit to playing inter-county hurling at the moment. It’s a full-time commitment to be playing at this level you know, some people are able to do it, some people aren’t… That happens over a period of time that some people, for different reasons won’t be involved… We’ve a young squad now. We’ve a lot of new players in there and these guys are fully committed and have brought a lot of energy to the table, and they just want to be involved in Dublin hurling and are looking forward to getting the opportunity to play,” said Cunningham.
Cunningham is looking forward to their clash with the Tribesmen on Sunday and feels that their young squad, lead by the likes of Donal Burke, Eoghan O’Donnell, Rian McBride, Eoghan Conroy and Shane Barrett, all of whom had impressive lead campaigns can revive the fortunes of his side.
“We’ve played Galway before and we know what to expect from them… but we’ve hopefully used the last couple of weeks since the league ended to prepare properly. We’re looking forward to the game,” said the Cork man.
Conal Keaney, who retired from the Dublin set-up while Cunningham was the manager, was speaking on The GAA Hour Hurling Show on Thursday, and he claimed that it wouldn’t have been Cunningham’s aim to have such a young squad, and that the blows of losing so many experienced players can’t be good for Dublin hurling in general.
“Some lads said it wasn’t for them and they wanted to step away, you know, at 26/27 years of age, they still have many good years left in them which is strange… They probably would have done better if they had experienced lads with them to help them along a little bit more, and they probably would have survived in the league… Especially going into a Championship game against a team like Galway, you know, it’s a big game for young lads… It probably doesn’t help when you’ve a lot of other young lads around you as well… There always seems to be some little knock coming every couple of months.”
Keaney claimed that these young lads acquitted themselves well throughout the league, but that they are lacking leaders in their squad. He claimed that Dublin need more experienced players to guide these younger lads and to give them advice during games and at training.
“The young lads, you have to give them credit, they stood up when it really mattered. I think they did get good performances out of the young lads, they just didn’t get the results. Even the playoff game against Clare, they played fairly well, just maybe in the last 10 minutes they were lacking a bit of experience that you need with the younger lads, to mix it together. Especially with a young lad, if something doesn’t go right for him, you need someone beside you that’s just going to say, ‘no problem, just get the next one it’s no bother.’ Maybe that’s what they were lacking in the league, just a bit more experience around them,” said Keaney.
Keaney feels that a siege mentality, on the back of the knocks that the squad has taken from players who have left could benefit the team.
“There’s nothing more than when you’re in a squad like that, that you have a bit of adversity outside the squad to galvanise the team, and I think they’re probably just looking forward to getting rid of all the talk and really just knuckling down on Sunday (against Galway).”
Listen to the Cunningham interview, and the lad’s opinions on it, here from 12’50”.
