John Martin: Where now for Dublin?

LEFT BEHIND…It was worrying to see Dublin collapse in the second half

WHERE now for Dublin hurling? It seems now to be a perennial mid-summer question. Like many hurling followers I’ve kept a watching brief on ‘Project Dublin’ for the past 10 years or so as the boys in blue have climbed the ranks from Division One yo-yo team to genuine All-Ireland contenders.

Also like many others, I have a soft spot for Dublin hurlers. Once I get over my resentful, begrudging jealousy of the publicly-funded cash injection that no other county in Ireland has yet to be deemed worthy of, I want the Dubs to succeed.

Not necessarily because it ‘would be good for hurling’ but because it proves it’s possible. Dublin prove it’s actually possible to break 100 years of tradition/neglect/snobbery/prejudice (delete as appropriate) and become genuine contenders for the MacCarthy Cup.

The problem is, they haven’t won it yet. And after the peak of that glorious summer of 2013, they have flattered to deceive on the big stage. Saturday evening’s 12-point loss to Kilkenny is the latest body blow to the Dubs. There’s no shame in losing to Kilkenny of course, but the manner in which they capitulated in the second half suggests that the current crop of players will fall short of summertime glory any time soon.

Prophecies can’t be made on the back of one performance of course. There will be more teams this summer that will fall to double-figure defeats to Kilkenny but the lack of options for Ger Cunningham on Saturday night was obvious. That is the most worrying thing, not just for Dublin but for all those counties striving for a place at the top table.

For all the mass of juvenile activity every weekend in the capital, of the underage success, the fact that one-fifth of the entire country’s population live in the county, and allowing for the draw of football which still robs the Dubs of four or five of their best hurlers – the big breakthrough remains elusive.

Dublin made their first advance at minor level in 2005 when winning a Leinster title, that team and subsequent underage success brought through some fantastic hurlers such as Conal Keaney, Johnny McCaffrey, and Joey Boland, and under Anthony Daly they reached unprecedented (or at least long forgotten) heights.

Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to be writing about any Ulster county winning a National League title, a Leinster Championship and reaching an All-Ireland semi-final in the space of three seasons, but Saturday’s second half signalled more than just a bad day at the office.

When Ger Cunningham glanced at his subs’ bench, looking for a game-changer, he didn’t see one. Dublin simply don’t have the players. Cunningham has shipped criticism after Saturday’s defeat for not making changes in that 15-minute period after half-time.

The criticism seems to premise on the assumption that Cunningham was the only person in O’Moore Park who couldn’t see that Dublin’s half forward line was getting ripped apart, or that Jonjo Farrell had Oisin Gough in his pocket. I can assure anyone of that opinion that Cunningham saw what everyone else saw. He has the advantage of managing the players for the past two years and knows that what he had on the bench wouldn’t have done the job that needed doing.

Even in Dublin’s successful spell under Daly, the scores were always hard to come by. The sweeper system which is now standard practice was vilified a few short years ago when Daly lined out his seven-man defensive unit. But the scores are even harder to come by now.

While the Dubs will undoubtedly perform better against different opposition, they simply didn’t have the players to compete against Kilkenny’s backs. The Cats’ forwards essentially got most of their scores from the age-old Kilkenny method of being able to win their own ball.

Despite missing Richie Hogan, it was business as usual from Kilkenny. There were no great tactical surprises from Cody: ‘win your own ball, take the right option, when we don’t have the ball, work hard to win it back’.

Fair enough, Cunningham was missing a few players – Peter Kelly and Cian Boland for example – but no one who would have stemmed the tide. Last year’s Championship suggested that Dublin were four or five players short of a championship-challenging side. Despite Cunningham giving plenty of players their chance over this year, they haven’t found them.

The likes of Johnny McCaffrey and Gough are no longer competitive at the top level. When Gough was subbed on Saturday, his replacement was 33-year-old Niall Corcoran.

There were some bright points, most notable the performance of Eoghan O’Donnell but it is up front that requires the fresh impetus. The Dublin backs actually did okay.

I watched the annual Belfast Schools v Dublin Schools Primary 7 match last Friday morning. The Dublin lads had a superb half forward line who ran the Belfast defence ragged. I’m not sure Cunningham – or the Dublin support – want to wait though.
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