Limerick star Lucey blasts college critics
UCD beat Birr in last Sunday’s AIB Leinster Club hurling quarter-final but Lucey disagrees with those who say the Dublin college have an unfair advantage over other clubs.
“I’ve been playing for this club for seven years now,” said Lucey. “I’ve played hundreds of games for them so I don’t understand how people can say we’re not a club team. If we’re not a club team then I don’t know what is.”
UCD’s tendency to drift out of games is more worrying for Lucey, as he feels it could cost them their chance of winning the Leinster title again this year. The College had five points to spare on Birr on Sunday but a second quarter slump, where they failed to register a score, while simultaneously shipping 1-5, could have cost them.
Twelve months ago, the Belfield side lost the provincial decider against James Stephens in Portlaoise on a day when two disputed points for the Kilkenny side hogged most of the headlines.
However, Lucey and his colleagues know that it was a first-half display which left them ten points adrift at the interval that was the main contributor to their eventual one-point defeat.
While they managed to pull themselves together in time against the Offaly champions on this occasion, Lucey has stressed that another spell like it next Sunday in the semi-final against Oulart-the-Ballagh could once again sabotage their ambitions.
“We got off to a lightning start, (against Birr)” said Lucey.
“We managed to get some good scores and a lot came from spilled ball that we seized on and hit over straight away. We were six points to no score up before we knew it, but we fell away after that.
“They really came back into it and a lot of that came from their half-back line. We said a few things at half-time. We talked about how we fell behind by ten points in the Leinster final last year. We let ourselves down in that game and we were determined not to let that happen again.
“I’m back in Limerick working in the hospital and I’ve hardly any training done. It’s hard enough. All I could do last week really was puck the ball around with a few lads back home.
“Limerick are back training tonight and Thursday but that will be more stamina work and, when you’re still in a competition like this, that’s not what you need to be working on.”
Meanwhile, Kilmacud Crokes and Dublin star Ray Cosgrove has his heart set on landing a second Leinster football medal in the space of five months.
Former AllStar Cosgrove rolled back the years on Sunday with an exhibition of scoring to ease Crokes past St Peter’s of Meath in the Leinster club championship.
They now face Offaly champions Rhode next Sunday in Portlaoise with the winners meeting either Mattock Rangers of Louth or Kildare’s Sarsfields in the provincial final.
Given Crokes’ form right now and indeed that of Cosgrove, who hit a stunning 1-10 against St Peter’s, the Dublin champs look a good bet for Leinster glory. That’s just as well because Cosgrove says nothing less than a Leinster title will suffice, just months after he helped Dublin to Leinster glory in July.
“Getting to that Leinster final and winning it is the driving force,” said 2002 AllStar Cosgrove. “Kilmacud Crokes have to win the Leinster championship this year, anything else would just be seen as not good enough.”
The Rhode clash at O’Moore Park will be Crokes’ second Leinster club semi-final on the spin, having reached the penultimate stage also last year.
They’ll be aided by the return of star county forward Mark Vaughan, who was suspended for the Peter’s game.
With Cosgrove, they’ve already got a player bang on form and Dublin boss Paul ‘Pillar’ Caffrey, who was at the Peter’s game, will have taken notice.
“It’ll give Paul something to think about,” smiled Cosgrove, who hasn’t started a championship game since 2003. “In fairness Pillar knows me well enough at this stage and what I can and can’t do.
“In terms of Dublin we’ll just see what happens over the next couple of months. Before that I want to win that Leinster club title. I’m doing well enough and enjoying my football so I can’t ask for much more.”
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