Second bite for Dublin's dual stars

Few counties have been more active in the minor championships this year than Dublin. Last weekend the footballers crashed out to Westmeath in the Leinster final but on Sunday the hurlers are back in Croke Park for their first All-Ireland semi-final since 1983.

The hurlers came through the quarter-final section with Antrim, and have five dual players, who also claimed starting places with the footballers, back to seek redemption against Cork. Of those, it would be hard to find a Dublin minor who has featured more prominently this season than Liam Og O hEineachain.

A centre back with the hurlers and centre forward with the footballers, and also on colleges, club and county teams, O hEineachain has had something of a never-ending season, O hEineachain stretching back to last September.

"I suppose it does get tiring sometimes but I'm certainly happy to be doing it," he says. "Losing the football to Westmeath was a big shock. We really had planned to go all the way this year. We had nine players back from last year. But nothing went right for us on the day.

"We haven't played Cork yet this year in the hurling and we don't know much about them, but they are favourites for this. Actually, it was just before the Leinster final that we found out that there was a back door in hurling for minor teams as well this year."

In last month's Leinster final, the battle with Offaly hung in the balance with five minutes to go until Dublin fell victim to their shortage of accurate forwards: "We only managed one score from play and that was never going to be good enough. We came past Antrim quite easily and now we've got another chance. And it's a big day for Dublin hurling for sure.