Cahill wary of Oak Leaf threat

PERFORMANCES, rather than points, will be the focus for Dublin’s footballers this weekend when they follow last Sunday’s win in Killarney with another Division One tie against Derry at Parnell Park.

Pat Gilroy’s side took the two points in a game between two severely weakened sides on the opening weekend of the NFL, but Derry arrive in Donnycarney this Saturday on the back of a five-point win at the venue last season.

However, should Dublin win, it would go a long way towards staving off any subsequent relegation fears and set them up perfectly for the rest of the campaign with a number of key players to return to the squad.

“I played the game last year when we played Derry at home and they gave us a fair old beating,” said Barry Cahill.

“They have started well again and put in a very good performance against Tyrone on Saturday night. It will be a big game. From our own point of view, we are not really focusing on results too much. We can’t be looking too far ahead. We have to focus on performance and trying to get the best out of the players. There are a lot of new guys in there so it will take a bit of time for lads to bed into the team.

“Saturday will be a very good test. That’s the benefit of playing Division 1 football. Every week you are playing against high quality opposition and you are learning a huge amount about yourself and the team.”

Cahill, absent last Sunday, is one of many Dublin players currently working their way back to fitness but the crippling injury list is showing signs of improvement.

Cahill himself is due back in training next week, while Ger Brennan and Conal Keaney will take sessions in the coming days and Pat Gilroy will have a much stronger hand to play come round three in March.

“Exactly. We had a lot of injuries in January. It was a bit disjointed for Pat and the management team because we had a lot of lads involved with colleges in the O’Byrne Cup. I think there was 15 lads playing in that. Then we had anther 10 or 15 injuries as well.

“It was difficult enough from that point of view. Slowly we are getting over our injury problems. The vast majority of the lads will be back in March at some stage. Mossie Quinn and Denis Bastick are a bit more long-term. They will be back by the end of the league, I’d say.”

In the meantime, it will fall to those players that are fit to rectify a problem that has dogged Dublin in modern times — a frustrating inconsistency that even Gilroy has alluded to in recent weeks. Far too often they have followed a morale-boosting win like last weekend’s with an unacceptable performance and deflating defeat but perhaps new habits will accompany new faces onto the team.

Dublin started with only five ‘regulars’ in Killarney and newcomers like Rory O’Carroll, Wayne McCarthy and Michael McAuley did themselves no harm with their individual displays.

“I wouldn’t have seen a huge amount of play from those lads over the last few years but they came in on Sunday and showed no nerves and went out and put in a good performance. It is very encouraging from our point of view.

“Any successful team needs to have strength in depth, particularly in the back line,” Cahill added. “It should bode well for later on in the year and provide a lot of healthy competition.”

Meanwhile, Ger Brennan is hoping county team-mate Eamonn Fennell’s transfer from O’Toole’s to St Vincent’s will be given the green light by the Disputes Resolution Authority which is set to deal with the matter next week.

“A player of Eamon’s talent, you’d like to see him play with your club,” said the masters student. “Obviously, being pals with him, he’s just very frustrated and he just wants to play football. He’s in great shape, as you can see at the moment, and he’s playing great stuff. He’s really worked hard over the Christmas period and he just wants to play football. That’s pretty much it.”