Dublin’s ‘marathon man’ Rushe raring to go again
As he recovers from broken hand, St Pat’s man is eager to go distance with Dubs
DUBLIN are in the process of appointing a new senior hurling manager but in the meantime Liam Rushe has been keeping himself busy – and fit.
After breaking his hand in a league match with his club St Pat’s Palmerstown, Rushe looked around for a new challenge to fill the time while hurling and gym work was out of the question.
And he decided that the Dublin Marathon, around two months away at that stage, would be his goal.
“It went anyway, that was the important thing,” he said of his run last weekend.
“I wanted to get under four (hours), I got 3.49 so I’ll take that. I’m having trouble with stairs now at the moment! I went in with a bit of a sore throat, now I can barely speak. That’s what it does to you.
“I always had it on the bucket list. My hand is actually broken, I broke it in a league game there a few weeks ago, seven or eight weeks ago and I kind of just decided then to do it.
“It was grand, I had to borrow someone else’s number because it was obviously sold out. I managed to get hold of their number and gave it a lash.
“I kicked for home too early though. “I got to UCD, thought it was flat, thinking, ‘Away we go.’ I was following the 3.50 lads the whole way. Got ahead of them. Kicked up the hill. Got cramp in the hammer, thought: ‘Aw sh*te’. Straightened out the leg – got cramp in the quad on the same leg.
“So I was literally… I don’t know what I looked like. I had to stop. The lads ran by me. Ah, shook it off and managed to close it in literally five seconds just ahead of them.
“It’s strange all right, yeah. The crowd is massive, I have to say. The girlfriend was there around the 25th mile, and that helped me kick on.
“The family were there eight or nine miles in. Different people were dotted in. It makes a massive difference.”
That run should stand him in good
stead when he reports back for training with Dublin under their yet-to-beannounced new manager.
Dublin are expected to confirm Pat Gilroy’s successor this week but Rushe insists he’s in the dark like everyone else.
The announcement was delayed after the county final went to a replay, but after Ballyboden’s win over Kilmacud Crokes over the weekend, the way is now clear with one of Mattie Kenny, Anthony Daly or Anthony Cunningham expected to be handed the role.
“I think everyone knows it has been narrowed down to a few candidates and I think there is an announcement impending this week so I’m looking forward to hearing.”
And he insists he has no issue with the delay in finding a new manager, given Dublin are out in the Walsh Cup on December 9.
Roadblocks
“It was later than this last year I think when Pat got the job so get it done and dusted. Now the championship is done there are no more roadblocks, the candidates that are there are well versed in Dublin hurling anyway so it’s not like they will be coming in cold so I think it’s in hand.”
And Rushe believes the new man will inherit a panel in rude health, though he admits they have work to do to close the gap on the likes of Limerick and Galway.
“Maybe we were a bit of a dark horse this year, we didn’t go too well the last couple.
“As I said, the league form certainly didn’t give anything away. But I don’t think at this level anyone, maybe in the league and certainly not in the championship, nobody takes anyone for granted.”
“I think we’re still a small bit back from those lads. They’ve proved for two years now, definitely Galway have just consistently produced it day in, day out. We’re still aspiring to get to that level.
“Having said that, last year was the first year in a while we were up at 90 per cent basically every game, there was no massive flop.
“We were there in every one of our championship games. We have a young panel hungry to develop so I think there’s a small gap there still but hopefully we can close it this year.”