Maestro McConnell has Dubs engine room motoring again

HE was happy to serve wherever selected but Ross McConnell is delighted to be in Dublin’s engine room for Sunday’s Leinster SFC semi-final with Westmeath.

The young St Oliver Plunketts/ Eoghan Ruadh star was asked to fill the problematic full-back jersey by Paul Caffrey for two seasons but was called ashore at half-time in last year’s championship clash against Sunday’s opponents.

One of Pat Gilroy’s first acts as Dublin manager was to give McConnell his chance at midfield and he has flourished alongside Darren Magee. He admitted: “Playing midfield for Dublin is always what I wanted to do. Playing for Dublin is what I wanted to do so playing midfield is a bonus. We were delighted to get the win against Meath, but we are under no illusions about the task ahead of us with Westmeath’s midfield this weekend.

“I was happy to play full-back and it was a steep learning curve over the last two years. You appreciate it a lot more when you’re in your own position.

“It doesn’t matter where you get thrown in for Dublin because you want to do a job and try to get on the right end of the result. If you do that, you’re happy. I remember my involvement only lasted until half time (last year)! It was a tough game because they have a lot of firepower. Obviously there’s Denis Glennon, who’s very good, and they have other players there as well. It’ll be a big test for the full-back line.”

The full-back experience was a new one for McConnell and as he says, all he could do was his best.

“You can only face the challenge that’s ahead of you and take each day as it comes. At full-back you’re always going to be marking the danger-man from each team. You try to get on with it and do your best.”

The problem is Denis Bastick’s now and he has does well there to date. There was a lot of criticism about other sectors of the Dublin team following their win over Meath though, most notably the attack.

One senses that Gilroy will be happy to dampen the hype machine but McConnell agrees that Dublin must do better. McConnell said: “We would always look to improve our performance. Things obviously didn’t go according to plan so we have been working a bit harder in training. Only time will tell after Sunday if our hard work paid off.”