Sleeping giants of hurling open their eyes
Though it is the second-biggest competition in hurling, you can bet your last euro that Cats’ fans garnered much more satisfaction from defeating their near and deadly rivals, than keeping this piece of silverware.
Now contrast that with the hurling fortunes (or misfortunes) of Dublin. Their recent Walsh Cup win in their home ground of Parnell Park was greeted like an All-Ireland final triumph by the hard-core 3,000 or so supporters who had bothered to turn up. It’s not the most prestigious of competitions, but when you’ve been in the desert as long as Dublin, even muddy waters taste good.
Kevin Flynn was captain of the Dublin side that day. And he still cherishes the moment.
“Ah sure we’d be second-class citizens everywhere, not many people would look up to Dublin hurlers,” he grins. “It’s a struggle, especially compared to the footballers. We wouldn’t have a huge core support in hurling, but they’re very loyal, always with us no matter where we travel, Limerick, Galway, Derry. I hope we’ve paid them back a bit with the Walsh Cup, it was great to win something.
“Only three thousand people there but in the closing minutes it sounded like fifty thousand. I’ve won U16, minor, four senior championships with the club, but that was something I’ll never forget. It had been thirty-odd years since Dublin last won a senior hurling trophy, it was a fantastic day, and the fact that we beat Kilkenny made it all the sweeter. It would be nice now to lift something bigger.”
As we head into the first round of the Guinness Leinster SHC this weekend, the chances of that happening, even for a realistic Kevin Flynn, appear remote. Nevertheless, he has ambitions, hard ambitions.
The Leinster final he admits is the goal. “Obviously to get there we’ll have to beat Westmeath and Laois, just to meet Kilkenny in the semi-final. But it would be huge for us to beat Kilkenny in the championship. I know most people will probably laugh at that, but that’s our aim. We’ve beaten them once already this year, they got that back in the league, but it would be great now to win the return.”
Even if many people refer to Dublin as the sleeping giants of hurling, Kilkenny are the ones who are wide awake, and they are in scintillating form. Against the reigning All-Ireland champions, who have just retained their league title, what chance Dublin, in all honesty?
“You never know, never say never,” the skipper said. “We’re in the first division in hurling this year, got some good results, got the Walsh Cup win over Kilkenny, and they were not flukes. What we’ve really been aiming for is consistency, and that’s difficult when you have a lot of inexperienced lads on the panel.
“But there are good young lads coming through, most of them played minor, U21, they’ve actually beaten Kilkenny coming up, so it’s nothing new for them to win. It’s great to see them coming into the side, a bit of spirit, a bit of a gee-up.”
What of the last league game however, a 30-point trouncing by Limerick? What of the argument that Dublin would be better off playing in a sort of second-tier championship, avoiding such heavy defeats at the hands of the heavy hitters?
“The more games you play against top opposition, the better you become. We’re not really going to learn an awful lot about ourselves playing against the weaker counties, and even if it means that every now and again you get a bit of a pasting, you can always take something away from that. If you’re a back for instance (as he is) you’re going to be marking top-class forwards. Okay you might get roasted, but you go home and think about it, what was he doing, what was I doing wrong, there’s always something to think about, to learn, whereas if you go out and have a handy day, clearing ball left, right and centre, there’s nothing to think about.
“In that Limerick game, we were playing club championship that week and I think Marty Morris (manager) was coming under pressure from some of the clubs to release players, give some of the younger lads a try, so that we really had something between our second and third string out.
“Limerick weren’t at full strength either, but they would have greater strength in depth, picking from the teams that won the last three All-Ireland U21 titles. We were always going to be struggling, to be honest. We won’t be reading too much into it, we’re getting geared up now for the championship. Westmeath, that’s our main goal now.”
Westmeath will be no pushover, as evidenced by their big win over Kildare last weekend, and away from home at that.
But with that attitude, with Diarmuid Healy having recently stepped into place as the first full-time hurling guru in the country, that sleeping giant that is Dublin hurling might be about to get an overdue wake-up call.
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