Kelleher to make bid for dual players Gaelic Games News

Ian O'Riordan

Dublin should be able to accommodate dual intercounty players for the upcoming season, according to new senior hurling manager Humphrey Kelleher.

A meeting is to be arranged with his football counterpart, Tommy Lyons, over the coming days where Kelleher hopes a compromise can be reached to give certain players the option of representing Dublin in both football and hurling at senior level.

Since taking over as football manager two years ago, Lyons has offered senior players in the county a simple choice - play whatever code you want but forget about playing both.

Kelleher believes several players, most notably Shane Ryan and Conal Keaney, can play successfully with both panels, and that Dublin hurling can't afford to be without them.

"I definitely plan to sit down with Tommy Lyons over the next few days," says Kelleher. "I'm not sure exactly when but we have to discuss the future of these players. And if my job is to do the best for Dublin hurling then I have to try and get the best players.

"The fact is I don't have the luxury of having 30 players better than Shane Ryan. If I did then there wouldn't be a problem. The fact is I'm dependent on that type of naturally gifted player. So hopefully we can come to some sort of compromise, and I believe we can. In an ideal world we wouldn't have to worry about these things, but life is a series of compromises."

Sunday's Blue Star challenges represented Kelleher's first competitive outing as Dublin hurling manager since his appointment in early December, and Ryan and Keaney featured in both the football and hurling games. For Ryan, it marked his first Dublin hurling game in two years since concentrating on football, yet in scoring four points it was clear he had lost none of his touch.

Keaney has so far remained faithful to the hurling cause although he has been called into the football panel and is understood to be weighing up his options for the coming season. Kelleher believes these players, and others in a similar position, should be given the option of playing both codes.

"It's important now that we take the pressure off the player, and give them the choice. Having dual status as a major issue creates that pressure so I say we get on with it, allow it to happen, and see later in the year exactly what the consequences are.

"But Dublin hurling has already lost so many promising players to football. I remember when Ciarán Whelan was one of the best underage hurlers in the county before he concentrated on football."

Kelleher believes the fears of players suffering more injuries when playing both codes are exaggerated, and that footballers in fact suffer more injuries than hurlers.

In the meantime Kelleher continues to settle into his new position, and intends on finalising his 30-strong panel in time for a challenge game with Ulster club champions Dunloy on January 18th. The following Sunday he takes Dublin into the defence of their Walsh Cup with an away game against Wexford.

In his few short weeks in charge Kelleher has already introduced to the panel a new training method, based on the SAQ system that was first brought to Gaelic games by the athletics coach Jim Kilty.

The SAQ system - which stands for speed, agility and quickness - was first used to telling effect by the Tipperary hurlers under Nicky English, with Kilty acting as trainer, when they won the All-Ireland title three years ago.

Initially Kelleher had hoped Kilty would himself carry out the SAQ training with the Dublin hurlers, but unfortunately the request for his services came a little too late.

"When I got round to contacting Jim it turned out he'd agreed just a few days before to work with the Wexford hurlers. But he was able to consult us on the training and we're now using the system ourselves with trainer Shane Curran. And we are way off the pace in a lot of areas, like players being quick off their mark. But the important thing is not to lose sight of skill either."

Kelleher, however, isn't rushing into things. For Sunday's game against the Blue Stars he had singled out three areas to work on, rather than try to change too much in one sitting.

"The first thing I wanted to see was players' moving down the grip of the hurl when striking under pressure. That worked well and we got some lovely scores as a result.

"We also wanted to ensure that the Blue Stars backs were never allowed to come out unchallenged. That also worked quite well.

"The third thing was about getting rid of the ball if the first touch didn't come off by pulling on the ground. That didn't always work as well as it should but when players are under pressure in situations like that it's easy to go back to the bad habits.

"And one of the things I've done over the past few weeks is look back over a lot of videos of Dublin hurling matches and there were a lot of these silly shots being taken, players just taking a chance, which ended up going wide. So there is definitely room there for huge improvement."