Better days ahead for Dublin hurling

With truly remarkable timing, Dublin hurling has found itself being talked about in a positive and optimistic light.

In a season where everything at senior level went from bad to worse, two results at underage level in the space of a week have left the county shining with fresh hopes and possibilities.

On Saturday the Dublin minor hurlers beat Kilkenny in a Leinster semi-final. That marked their first championship victory over Kilkenny at minor level since 1983, when Dublin went on to reach the All-Ireland final, where they fell to Galway. Six days before that, the under-14 hurlers of Dublin club Kilmacud Crokes won the Féile na nGael title in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

Wexford's Liam Griffin, former All-Ireland winning manager and more recently a member of the hurling development committee, has witnessed his share of false dawns in hurling over the years, but has been quick to highlight the magnitude of the two results for Dublin hurling.

"To me anyway they were two of the most significant results of the past week," says Griffin. "For any county to have two wins like that is the space of a week is remarkable. Right now Dublin are the All-Ireland under-14 hurling champions at club level, and their minor team are in a Leinster final after beating the All-Ireland finalists of last year. And that was a very good Kilkenny team, who were just edged out by Galway in the replay last year."

Some sceptics would point to some similar breakthroughs for Dublin underage hurling in recent years, such as the fine under-21 side of three years ago, that failed to make the desired impact at senior level. There are several reasons why Griffin believes this latest breakthrough could be different.

"I know Dublin have had several false dawns in the past. But I believe this has the potential to be a permanent dawn. Dublin has lost a lot of young talent over the years to football, and that was a large part of the problem when it came to making a real success at hurling at senior level.

"But there was really only intermittent progress at underage level. But Dublin are now consistently producing good underage hurling teams, and if that continues, and with the population Dublin has, there's no way football can consume them all.

"The other upside is that the day could soon come when young players will prefer hurling to football, and won't be tempted away, and they'll see that as the better opportunity to express themselves."

Other sceptics would point to a brief decline in Kilkenny underage teams. Again Griffin believes Dublin deserve all the credit they get.

"There was nothing weak about that Kilkenny team, definitely not. I heard some of that talk down there and it really infuriated me. That's a typical knee-jerk reaction, and very unfair to Dublin hurlers. That was as good a Kilkenny team as any year.

"A lot of them played on the St Kieran's team that made the All-Ireland colleges' final, so Dublin deserve all the praise they get for that victory.

"And Dublin has been doing some fantastic work at underage level, and against the very difficult backdrop of what's been going on at senior level. And the people doing that work aren't getting enough credit for that."

In the meantime though, Griffin still sees room for improvement when it comes to the promotion of the senior game in Dublin. "It is very important now that Dublin get back to Division One hurling, and make every effort to survive there. And of course the county board has to take some of the responsibility for the failure's there.

"But then Dublin certainly aren't alone in that regard. If you take say that stretch of Dublin from Stillorgan to Cabinteely, there's a bigger population there than most counties. So there is a fault there somewhere."

Dublin's minor run continues on Sunday when they meet Wexford in the Leinster final at Croke Park, the curtain-raiser to the Kilkenny-Wexford senior final. With five of that panel also on the minor football team, the football semi-final against Laois - originally scheduled for tomorrow, has been deferred until July 10th.