No change of code for James McCarthy.
There’s not a whole lot of things that could bring Dublin’s reign of dominance to an end, they showed that they could pretty much win an All-Ireland without their best player and have a pile of young talent coming through.
But there are rumours rifling around that a number of them could trade the big ball for the small ball after former Dublin manager Pat Gilroy was appointed as the manager.
There have been a few names mentioned, Ciaran Kilkenny and Cormac Costello were both on a talented Dublin minor team together but, of course the big name mentioned had to be Diarmuid Connolly.
You would suspect both him and Gilroy would be close, a former manager to the player as well as a clubmate in St.Vincent’s and to add fuel to the fire Connolly didn’t get a whole lot of playing time after serving a 12-week suspension. It’s unlikely to happen that the 30-year-old will switch codes but it is fun to imagine.
And Connolly is no terrible hurler either, he proved it at the weekend in the Dublin Senior Hurling Championship after netting a not so shabby three points.
Diarmuid Connolly isn't a half bad hurler pic.twitter.com/aOrzba5icf
— Darragh Culhane (@DarraghCulhane) October 11, 2017
Yep, not bad at all pic.twitter.com/f7bd9OzxIk
— Darragh Culhane (@DarraghCulhane) October 11, 2017
— Darragh Culhane (@DarraghCulhane) October 11, 2017
But who knows what could happen? But Dublin fans can rest assured Player of the Year nominee James McCarthy will be sticking with the hurlers.
The Ballymun Kickhams’ man was speaking at the September PwC GAA/GPA Player of the Month Awards where he scooped the award after his man of the match performance against Mayo in the All-Ireland final and is hopeful that his old manager will keep away from the footballers:
“I certainly hope not,” McCarthy replied when asked any of his teammates have been tapped up.Â
“We’re riding our crest of a wave and want to keep that going for another few years.”
And McCarthy has no plans of switching himself:
“No. I’m not much of a stickman, I’d be much more of a hacker and be told to stop before I touched the ball, that’d be it.
“I wouldn’t be good at the stick work.”
McCarthy also gave his view and the new appointment:
“He’ll have a very united bunch and maybe guys that are not there at the moment I reckon they’ll all come back in and he makes you want to play for him which is the biggest compliment I can put forward for Pat, he gets teams very driven and wanting to play for Dublin.
“When I first came in he was organising, pooled everything and everyone knew what was going on and that’s half the battle and controlling 30 or 35 guys and 10 or 15 in the backroom team. You have to be able to know everyone’s role and job and I suppose he’ll be very good at doing that.”
David McGee, Markets and Strategy Partner, PwC and Aogán Ó’FearghaÃl, GAA President are pictured with Dublin Footballer James McCarthy at the announcement of the September PwCGAA/GPA Player of the Month Awards at a reception in PwC Offices, Dublin
