Gilroy expects a real battle

DUBLIN MANAGER Pat Gilroy was pondering the different routes to his side’s planned defence of the Sam Maguire as he presided over the latest of Dublin’s early morning media gatherings at St Clare’s yesterday.

“In one sense . . . you would nearly be better off losing on Sunday because of the way the matches fall,” said Gilroy as he looked forward to Sunday’s Leinster semi-final showdown with Wexford on Sunday.

“You’d get a nice run of matches going into games – but you never know what you are going to get in the qualifiers so you want to go out and win it,” Gilroy added in the same breath.

Dublin are strong advocates of playing games on a regular basis. Should Wexford win Sunday’s match, for which Gilroy has named an unchanged line-up, then Dublin would be straight into round two of the qualifiers six days later.

Rounds three and four would follow on consecutive Saturdays in July before the All-Ireland quarter-final over the August bank holiday weekend. The alternative is straight passage into the Leinster final on July 22nd with a two-week gap to the last eight for the provincial champions.

“What’s going to bring the team on is games. But I think you have to have a plan A and plan B depending on what way you are going. But it wouldn’t change much about preparing for a quarter-final and aiming at that kind of date for being at your absolute best,” he added.

Kilmacud Crokes defender Cian O’Sullivan is fit again but hasn’t dislodged any of the current personnel in the defence.

That means Philly McMahon is the only change in Dublin’s defence from the All-Ireland-winning starting six.

Michael Dara Macauley again loses out to Eamon Fennell and Denis Bastick, this pair being rewarded for what Gilroy described as the best midfield showing – winning 70 percent of the kick-outs – in two years against Louth on June 3rd.

Wexford had a misfiring Dublin on the rack during last year’s Leinster final, only to gift the champions a second-half goal and Gilroy is wary of their potential threat

“They had a good plan to curtail certain aspects of our game. We played into that in the first half. We didn’t provide options for Bernard in particular who was getting bottled up a fair bit.

“We got a bit of fortune in the second half but we had started to come a little for three or four minutes before that goal went in. Wexford’s plan against us in the last number of years has been very smart.

“They are also very well conditioned. Unlike other teams playing in Division Three they, physically, are at the right standard. They don’t fall away at all, they are well able to hassle and harry. That’s a key attribute, and they have good scoring forwards. Any of their six can score.

“They’re going to present a really difficult challenge, not just for us, but you just look at their performance against Cork in the championship a couple of years ago, they really put it up to the big teams,” he concluded.

DUBLIN (SFC v Wexford): S Cluxton; P McMahon, R O’Carroll, M Fitzsimons; J McCarthy, G Brennan, K Nolan; E Fennell, D Bastick; B Cullen (capt), A Brogan, P Flynn; D Connolly, K McManamon, B Brogan.