Irish Daily Star - Inside Sport
A semple INDICATOR
Kenny progress in spotlight
Broke
WHAT Dublin do tonight at Semple Stadium will give a significant indicator of their progress under Mattie Kenny.
Galway man Kenny is like a dog with a bone. Plenty would have let the bone drop after last year, his third in charge.
Since their 2011 League title and 2013 Leinster cr own — both under Anthony Dal y — success has been thin on the ground as Dublin went backwards.
The next step has proved elusive. Dublin’s last All-Ireland came back in 1938. That’s a whole lot of culture and history to turn around.
Daly broke serious ground with a first Leinster title in 52 years and a first League title in 72 years. The next step is bigger again.
Kenny came in after winning back-to-back All-Ireland club titles with Cuala (2017/18).
This was a remarkable achievement given the struggle Dublin hurling has endured in their bid to bridge the gap to the traditional powers.
It was Dublin’s first AllIreland club hurling title.
In 2019 Dublin knocked Micheal Donoghue’s Galway out of the Champi - onship in the final game of the Leinster Round Robin at Parnell Park, to finish third in the group.
The fact it came in what was essentially a straight knock-out Championship game was a step forward.
The All-Ireland quarter-final defeat by Laois at Portlaoise proved they still had issues.
That left fresh scars for Kenny to deal with.
The 2020 and 2021 seasons were both Covid-hit, while 2020 was also a winter Championship.
Dublin lost by a point to Kilkenny in the 2020 Leinster semi-final, but they trailed by 16 at one stage, bef ore actuall y leading by a point late on.
Kilkenny hit the last two scores in what was a defeat packed full of more psychological damage on a number of levels.
Tame
There followed a tame All-Ireland quarter-final exit at the hands of Cork at Thurles. The same venue they’ve continually lost qualifiers and AllIreland quarter-finals at over the past decade.
In 2021 Dublin shocked Galway in the Leinster semi-final. Better still, the win came at Croke Park.
However, they were badly hit by Covid on the eve of the Leinster final.
Had they not lost starters Cian O’Callaghan and Ronan Hayes, and two subs, due to a Covid outbreak, as well as Eoghan O’Donnell to injur y five minutes in, it might have been a different story.
There’s every chance Dublin would have toppled a Kilkenny side. Then we’d see last year and Kenny’s reign differently.
A Leinster title is still a very real possibility.
Throughout Kenny’s time, Dublin have lacked ball winners and goal scorers in attack. Hence the use of defenders Liam Rushe and Chris Crummy up front.
You need your best players playing in their best positions when it comes to the highest level.
Rushe was back in defence last year and found some of his All Star form.
The lack of goal threat is a conundrum for Kenny, and one his reign will probably be defined by.