Cahill in the dark as Dublin’s starting 15 too close to call

VICE-CAPTAIN Barry Cahill has admitted even he’d struggle to predict Dublin’s team for Sunday week’s Leinster SFC opener.

Boss Pat Gilroy is naturally keen to experiment in his first season and used the league as a talent spotting exercise.

It was anticipated he may opt for closer to his championship 15 in a string of recent challenge games.

But in line with the alternating league lineups, he used last weekend’s friendly wins over Mayo and Down to look at around 30 players each day.

As a result, competition for places is huge and no player can genuinely be sure of his starting place against Meath on June 7.

“It is very hard to predict the team at the moment,” admitted Cahill.

“Pat has tried a lot of players over the league and then you had the players like the Kilmacud Crokes lads only coming back in late march or April.

“I think it is hard to predict a team but that’s good in one sense because it keeps everyone on their toes.

“Nobody feels they’re guaranteed their place.”

In fact, 2007 All-Star wing-back Cahill suggested having too predictable a line-up may have cost Dublin in previous campaigns.

“Yeah, I think maybe it was one of our downfalls over the last number of years,” he added.

“It’s been the same 17 or 18 players that have featured in every game.

“Our team was a bit predictable and when we got injuries, like when Alan Brogan went off last year (against Tyrone) we didn’t have much replacements there.

“I think we have a good squad at the moment. The training matches are very competitive and hopefully that’ll stand to us against Meath.”

Gilroy used last weekend’s games to narrow down his championship options with several fringe players released back to their clubs.

Most notably All-Ireland club winner Mark Vaughan, who led the destruction of Meath when they last met in the 2007 Leinster SFC quarter-final replay with 0-8, won’t take part.

He’s struggling with a back injury and has been told to concentrate on getting it right.

In general, Cahill is happy with progress approaching the potential sell-out clash with old rivals Meath.

“I think things are coming together well,” he revealed. “Pat, Mickey and the other lads on the management team have been able to put their own stamp on training and on the team.

“Hopefully now it’ll come together on Sunday week.

“Initially, everyone was feeling each other out, seeing how things were going.

“We had a good week in La Manga and then we improved as the league went on and hopefully we can keep that going.”