False dawn for Dublin
Seven years after Dubs hit glory, they’re still struggling
AT the time it was celebrated as one giant step forward for Dublin hurling, but in the end they just stepped off a cliff edge. Seven years ago today, Dublin, under Anthony Daly’s management, blitzed Galway by 12 points to win their first Leinster championship in 52 years. There was enough in that to pop the Champagne, but it felt more like the beginning of something rather than the end.
Two years previously they had won their first Allianz Hurling League title since 1939, underpinning the sense that this was a blue tide rising, but when it went out, it stayed out.
In truth, had they got a rub of the green they might have made good on winning the Liam MacCarthy in 2013 but having outplayed Cork for long periods, the harsh dismissal of Ryan O’Dwyer would be a game-changer.
‘They should have beaten Cork in the semi-final and if they had I am certain they would have given Clare a good game of it in the final that year,’ reflects former manager Humphrey Kelleher.
What is less certain is when will they will be back as a force, but it is unlikely to be any time soon. An underwhelming 2014 season brought to an end Daly’s six-year reign, and since then their decline has been constant and, on occasions, spectacular.
Seven years on, just five of the team that started against Galway remain – Liam Rushe, Conal Keaney (pictured above), Danny Sutcliffe, David Treacy and Paul Ryan. While there is nothing unusual about that – the commitment and the ever-younger age profiles of inter-county teams facilitating increased player turnover – the discontent that simmered within the camp during Ger Cunningham’s three-year reign brought the curtain down prematurely on careers.
Others like Sutcliffe, who is the current captain, and Ryan left the panel for two and a half years, only returning for Pat Gilroy’s single-year reign in 2018.
Against that backdrop of chaos and discontinuity, Dublin’s slippage can be explained, although perhaps not so easily halted.
Mattie Kenny’s first season in charge ended disastrously with an unexpected exit in the All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final to Laois, who they will face later this year in a Leinster quarter-final, but there had been some green shoots.
Not least in beating Galway to make it out of Leinster, while Kenny’s record of winning back-to-back All-Ireland club titles with Cuala augurs well given that this year, the game faces a winter Championship.
However, if anything, that will be more of a hindrance than a help, suggests Kelleher.
‘Dublin are lacking height and strength in the forward line. I was hoping they would look at Chris Crummey in the centre halfforward position because that position badly needs to be filled.
‘We have always had nippy, fast corner-forwards but we don’t have the kind of guys who can take on the Padraic Mahers of this world. That physical element is a huge aspect. It is really important you have that power and that is also one of the reasons why Wexford have not made the breakthrough yet, either.
‘I look at those teams who have got the big men up front, like Seamie Callaghan with Tipperary, TJ Reid with Kilkenny, who can win the hard ball, catch it over their heads, and drive on. ‘When you have that kind of player it helps an awful lot and Dublin might have that if they go with Chris Crummey,’ says Kelleher. But there is a quality issue at play. While Dublin under Daly were infected by a virulent strain of inconsistency – they had a habit of following up a big season with a blow-out – few doubted their natural talent.
It was that quality, allied to a heavily-resourced coaching structure and a huge population, that saw Dublin being named by most commentators as the game’s coming force.
But it simply has not happened and the production line has spluttered. They have had modest underage success in the intervening years (they won the Leinster minor in 2016 and ’18 as well as the provincial under-21 championship in ’16) but nowhere near the level envisaged.
‘The bottom line is you can’t build a team around one player and that is the importance of having a deep panel,’ adds Kelleher.
‘You look at the team in 2013, and, apart from Ryan O’Dwyer, Conal Keaney, Paul Ryan, David Treacy, Dotsy O’Callaghan, you had all these different kind of forwards but they were also exceptionally good, natural hurlers.
‘We have never replaced Dotsy while David Treacy has never come back to the form he showed that time. That may be a reflection of our underage because we don’t seem to be getting that kind of quality through. The last top players we have seen come through from Dublin’s underage were Cormac Costello and Ciarán Kilkenny, but they did not come to us when they made the step up to senior, while Con O’Callaghan was the stand-out forward in Cuala’s All-Ireland winning campaign and he has also opted to go with the footballers.’
This year’s Leinster championship will be played on a knockout basis, arguably robbing Kenny of the developmental value of a guaranteed four games, but Kelleher is adamant the structure of the championship is irrelevant when the quality is not there.
‘If you don’t have the quality, you don’t have the quality. If you look at a team like Limerick, you can see the strength in depth that team have. You can say the same about Galway and Tipperary, you can see their quality not in just their team, but in the options they have, and playing an extra game or two is not going make up that deficit.
‘Dublin are not really competing at that level. From one to seven we are as good as anyone, and Eoghan O’Donnell is in the top three full-backs in the country, while Sean Moran is an excellent centre-back as he has shown time and again with Cuala.
‘However, you build your team down the spine and we simply do not have an 11 or a 14.
‘Irrespective of the format, you either have it or you don’t have it and Dublin don’t, whether they get one chance, two chances or three chances.’
“The physical
element is a huge aspect”