Dublin must ride the tide or be left stranded

MOSTLY HURLING: Dublin have shown progress and they now know they can compete with the best

DUBLIN CERTAINLY served up notice last Sunday that they are now showing very definite signs of being as good as the best of the rest. Anthony Daly and his backroom team have to take much credit for this latest performance. Remember this was a team who had Wexford beaten out the gate in the first half of their first championship match last year but couldn’t finish the job and subsequently lost in the replay.

Last Sunday we saw a Dublin hurling team with a plan. We saw a Dublin team that matched Kilkenny’s physicality and workrate and we witnessed a Dublin team that played at full throttle until the final whistle. Another very big bonus for them is having a free-taker of Alan McCrabbe’s standard. Add on his workrate, a few points from play, a point from a sideline puck and you have a very influential midfielder indeed.

But Dublin’s performance wasn’t a one-man show. Tomás Brady was outstanding at full back; the Dublin wing backs, Stephen Hiney and Mark Carton, limited two of the outstanding forwards of the modern game, Eoin Larkin and Henry Shefflin, to two points from play; and John McCaffrey did an admirable job as the sweeper all through.

Newcomer David Treacy plundered three points off of John Dalton while Liam Ryan and Liam Rushe were always a threat.

Top forward David O’Callaghan never got the time or space to be a threat. Even when he had possession I felt he didn’t take the right options and was a little selfish with the ball. However, he is a very good player who will, no doubt, show his worth before season’s end.

But for Dublin a moral victory is just not good enough. This latest performance is progress. Now they know they are capable of competing with the best. Will they now go on and show the same respect to their next opponents and prepare just as diligently? If they don’t use this tide that has risen it will just go back out and leave them stranded. They now need to crystallise this new-found confidence so that it can be used again.

Kilkenny have had three serious tests and have learned even more about their team. Add in Noel Hickey, Cha Fitzpatrick and Richie Hogan to last Sunday’s starting 15 and you begin to appreciate how strong Kilkenny really are. But there have been definite signs in all the games that they are beatable. It might be sooner than we think.

It was interesting to hear the esteemed panellists on TV3 and RTÉ’s Sunday Game in agreement that Cork had again entered the championship as contenders. Is this latest swallow evidence of the arrival of summer? Are Offaly legitimate enough opposition on which to base the latest judgment?

Anyone who saw the first half in Tullamore last Saturday night mightn’t agree. Cork were lethargic and one-paced. They showed a distinct unease with Offaly’s first-time ground hurling. They didn’t cope too well with Joe Bergin and Joe Brady under the puckouts.

But there were signs of hope (green shoots) in the second half. Pa Cronin showed he has much to offer the team; Aisake Ó hAilpín will be a handful for any full back; Patrick Horgan might have more to offer coming in off the bench; Eoin Cadogan has shown signs of becoming a top-class full back; and Shane O’Neill continues to be among the best corner men in the game. Add in the tried and tested and on a given day they can be a match for any team (maybe Kilkenny excluded).

Offaly should survive in the Liam MacCarthy while Laois will be well buoyed up by their great win over Antrim.

The Munster final. The words themselves have a ring to them. Venue Thurles. Where else? The traditional final, Cork and Tipperary. No, not this time. Tipperary and Waterford do battle so that one can be crowned the kings of Munster Hurling 2009.

Both go into the game with form akin to the curate’s egg, good in spots. Both also have the ability to produce a big performance. Tipperary’s display in this year’s National League final against Kilkenny seemed to signal the re-arrival of a team who could be considered legitimate contenders to oust the champions. But since then they have played like a team who are running on dirty petrol.

At this stage Conor O’Mahony and Shane McGrath should be back to full fitness and are hugely important players for the Premier side while Eoin Kelly, though still struggling with a back injury, has also got three weeks more training done. These players are team leaders but haven’t been, for various reasons, at full tilt yet this season.

However, Tipperary have many talented, artistic, young players and if they can cut down on their tendency to over-elaborate and increase their workrate they can be considered bona fide contenders.

Waterford, on the other hand, will certainly feel the loss of Ken McGrath even though his form has not been great this year so far. But Ken has been inspirational in many many games over the past 10 years and will be a enormous loss. However, John Mullane is taking over the inspirational role and is manning it with great ease. Eoin Kelly, if played out the field, can also be a very influential player while Séamus Prendergast will cause concern for any half back.

I have reservations, though, about the Déise backs as a unit. While there certainly are some top-class backs on their team I’m not convinced they are good enough to cope with a speedy, skilful, effervescent (if they play like this) Tipperary forward unit.

If both teams play somewhere approaching their potential I think nach mbeidh an lá ag an bPaorach.

Will Clare narrow Cusack Park again on Saturday and will Galway be able to reproduce their form of the first 50 minutes against Kilkenny? Two of the great imponderables as we head into Saturday’s qualifiers. This is a difficult game to call. Clare might spring a surprise. In the other qualifier game Limerick might just shade it against Wexford.