Dublin’s day of reckoning
Boss Ger has got a point to prove
WHEN former Cork shot-stopper Ger Cunningham was named manager of the Dublin hurlers in late 2014, the aim was for the county to push on and deliver an All-Ireland title, a reasonable target given the progress made under his predecessor Anthony Daly. It hasn’t exactly worked out like that, though.
As Cunningham enters the third Championship campaign of his controversial reign, Dublin find themselves at the beginning of yet another rebuilding process, with no added silverware since Daly walked away following a hugely successful six-year stint in which they often blew hot and cold, but still delivered League and provincial success.
On Sunday, they face Allianz League winners Galway in their Leinster SHC opener and while the Tribesmen come into the summer full of hope and ambition, Dublin fans have little idea what to expect.
Few, if any, expect their involvement at the business end of the Championship in the wake of following another underwhelming League campaign and continued rumours of player unrest.
Just four years ago they were Leinster Champions, but they begin this campaign as arguably the fourth-strongest in the province behind Galway, Kilkenny and Davy Fitzgerald’s revitalised Wexford.
There is a real fear that this may become just another lost year for the county as they attempt to dispel the notion that their best hurlers are not involved with the squad.
Under Cunningham’s watch, Dublin have already seen the likes of Michael Carton, Peter Kelly, Joey Boland, Johnny McCaffrey and Danny Sutcliffe leave the panel and, in the past few months, they have been joined by both Mark and Paul Schutte, with the former opting to spend the summer trying to earn a spot in Jim Gavin’s football squad.
Schutte’s decision to rejoin the footballers (he won an Under 21 All-Ireland under Gavin and played for the seniors with Pat Gilroy) came just weeks after he’d helped Cuala to a first AIB All-Ireland Club Hurling Championship title.
One of Cuala’s key players on that journey to Croke Park was Con O’Callaghan, a gifted hurler who will also spend his summer chasing Sam Maguire instead of Liam MacCarthy having already tasted All-Ireland success as part of Dublin’s football squad last year, albeit enjoying very little gametime.
It does not reflect well on Cunningham that both would rather try prove themselves in a fiercely competitive football squad than lead the charge on a hurling team they would walk onto.
Add to that the sight of All-Star hurler Danny Sutcliffe lining out for the New York footballers three weeks ago, and it is clear that there is a serious problem facing Dublin hurling. There is no other county in either code that has seen so many talented players declare themselves unavailable.
Last Autumn, former All-Star full-back Peter Kelly exclusively told Sportsmail that he felt Cunningham ‘has been slowly eroding away the foundations’ of the highly talented squad that had won a Leinster title in 2013 and reached an All-Ireland semi-final.
Kelly was speaking after his decision to quit the panel, shortly after Cunningham had axed Leinster-winning captain Johnny McCaffrey and provincial medallist Daire Plunkett.
Around the same time former Dublin defender Michael Carton labelled the atmosphere under Cunningham as ‘toxic’, claiming ‘people weren’t getting on and it just wasn’t a nice place to be. You could see tension within the management team and that’s going to filter down the ranks.’
Earlier that year, Conal Keaney took to Twitter following Dublin’s 12-point defeat to Kilkenny in the Leinster Championship and didn’t pull any punches. ‘Tactically a shambles tonight Dublin need all their best hurlers playing to compete #changeneeded #dublinarebetterthanthis’, he tweeted.
That change has yet to come, and this summer looks to be make or break for the Cunningham era.
In his first season, they were blown out of the water (5-19 to 118) by Galway in a Leinster Championship quarter-final replay, before coming through the qualifiers and bowing out to Waterford in the All-Ireland quarter-finals.
Last year, they suffered a limp 12point defeat to Kilkenny in the provincial semi-finals before their summer ended in round one of the qualifiers, with a a three-point loss to Cunningham’s native Cork.
This time around, he is placing his faith in youth, and while there is still plenty of talent available to choose from, the panel looks a long way off being able to trouble the best teams in the country with any level of consistency.
Half-back pair Jake Malone, Donal Burke and forwards Chris Bennett and Eoghan O’Donnell are all extremely promising talents, but it is a huge ask for such a young squad to mount any kind of All-Ireland challenge.
That much was clear in a League campaign which proved to be a rough ride for Cunningham’s young hopefuls, an opening day 16-point hammering by Tipperary followed by defeats to Waterford, Clare and Kilkenny which saw Dublin relegated from Division 1A after taking just two points from a possible 10. The most worrying aspect was that none of it was particularly surprising given how far expectations have fallen under Cunningham. Two years have already been wasted — Dublin cannot afford to let that continue.
Too many players have left the panel in recent times