By
Brendan Boylan

Dublin hurlers have made great strides with this Spring confirming their new found status.

In some places, the Walsh Cup – as with the Waterford Crystal Cup or indeed any of the subsidiary competitions in football – may not look the most appetising fish in the frying pan. That might depend on what sort of foundations one is building up from. Besides that even, given the ultra competitive mantra that exists within the GAA nowadays every game is taken seriously by every team.

It was opined some time ago that this could be a defining year for Anthony Daly’s management of Dublin. In other words, he could be considered to be under at least a degree of pressure in terms of actually garnering some major silverware. At the time, possibly a National League title was what was in mind. No, it was not forgotten that by that stage they had already mastered the Cats in the Final of the Leinster subsidiary competition. However, hindsight has proven the real significance of that win.

Coming from Dublin’s standpoint, not alone to defeat Kilkenny in anything but to get silverware for doing so will always be a massive thing. And don’t for a minute be fooled into thinking the January competition didn’t matter to the vanquished. Brian Cody doesn’t operate that way and his players can’t afford to, given the competition for places that abounds by the Nore. The tales of their training matches are vintage material at this stage!

Daly’s Dublin built handsomely on that early season success. Until they hit the stumbling block against Galway that is. Which recalls the dictum imparted this way by a veteran Gael many moons ago: ‘You find out your good players when you are getting beaten’. And to this end, Dublin are to be applauded for the manner in which they bounced back against the Leinster kingpins in Croke Park recently.

Now, it could quite easily be seen as a glorious chance hurled away by Dublin. This theory would be backed up by the fact that the metropolitans hit nearly 40 wides over the course of two games against Galway and Kilkenny. Immediately after the final whistle, their camp must have felt something akin to what Donald McCain did in the immediate seconds after Peddlers Cross just got pipped on the line by Hurricane Fly in the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham.

After a period of reflection though, it is most likely that the boys in blue will be quite pleased with their efforts. The Clarecastle native at their helm comes across as an individual who tries to extract the positive out of every situation. Thus he was quite bullish after the Jones’ Road stalemate. And with justified reason too, to defeat Kilkenny and get a draw against them in the same season is not to be scoffed at.

Those who were not au fait with the Dublin hurling scene could be exonerated for assuming it was all about Conal Keaney. There can be no doubting the impact the return of the Ballyboden St Enda’s man has had on the hurling fold. Against Kilkenny though, there was further evidence of what those of us have been following closely have been aware of for some time. This is far from being a one trick pony. Liam Rushe excelled at midfield and up front a new star stamped his name on the big stage for the first time. Paul Ryan excelled against no less than the great Michael Kavanagh, bagging a very impressive 1-5 for himself.

All of which gives his side a mathematical chance at least of setting up a rematch with Kilkenny in the decider. At the time of typing it is probably unlikely to happen given that Tipperary have seven points of a better scoring difference and face Wexford in Thurles in the final round. Dublin have already beaten Declan Ryan’s team though and nothing could ever be discounted when Anthony Daly leads a team to Cork. It should all make for a very interesting last round.

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