‘Give refs more freedom’
The Oulart-the-Ballagh man’s name will be put forward for ratification at next month’s county board meeting for another two years in charge.
Ger Cushe is coming in as a selector with Paudie Butler and Jerry Fitzpatrick also remaining on in coaching capacities. Dunne admits Kilkenny, while they were knocked out of this year’s Championship before the All-Ireland semi-finals, still set the standard and his players will have to follow their lead and “improve off-the-field as well as on it”.
However, he would also like to see referees being given some latitude in how they control games.
“It’s been a great hurling season. People had been waiting for Kilkenny’s dominance to end but they won’t be slow in coming back. All we need now is a little tweaking on some of the refereeing that’s going on. It’s a tough game and I know there’s nothing in the rule book where it says common sense but in a game like hurling referees have to use it.”
Dunne understands Wexford will face into a tougher 2014 Leinster championship with Kilkenny and Galway keen to make up for truncated summers. “The two-year term was up and we looked for another two years. We’re improving, we drew with Dublin and Clare but Carlow could have beaten us as well.
“Everybody right now is capable of beating anybody. Some people say it’s the end of the road for Kilkenny but I would take that with a pinch of salt. I can guarantee Henry Shefflin and Brian Cody will be back next year and I haven’t spoken to either of them! It’s been an open Championship, an exciting Championship. The Wexfords, Limericks and Clares have been winning games, the others will be back and we’ll have to be ready for that.”
Dunne hopes more of the county’s younger players make the breakthrough next season but is wary after the U21 side’s shock All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Antrim last weekend. “Looking at last Saturday, you’d be looking at axing some of the U21s rather than bringing more in! We’d a new team this year and had four or five of the U21s in the panel but only Jack Guiney was in the team on a consistent basis.”
He still rues the serious knee injury that befell his in-form full-back Tomás Waters in the qualifier defeat to Clare.
“He did cruciate and medial damage as well as cartilage damage. Ray Moran opened him up and there was damage to the bone as well so he has to drill holes into the bone to ensure it heals back properly.
“That’s going to add another six weeks to his recovery and it’s disappointing because he had a fantastic year. For a fella who had never played in the backs for Wexford before, he was brilliant and he had two hip operations last season as well.”
Having run Clare close in their qualifiers, he tips Cork to come out on top in Sunday week’s All-Ireland final.
“I fancied Cork to beat Dublin and Limerick to beat Clare in the semi-finals. To be fair to Davy (Fitzgerald), Brian Murphy picked up Tony Kelly in their Munster semi-final and that counteracted Davy’s gameplan but he now has both Kelly and (Podge) Collins as the two loose men.
“How Cork react to that I don’t know because Murphy isn’t likely to play in the final. But I’ll stick with Cork. They should have too much for Clare.”
