Kelly: U21s can provide senior impetus

DUBLIN hurling ace Peter Kelly is optimistic that the U21 side’s shock win over Kilkenny will serve as a massive spur for the county senior team in the All-Ireland qualifiers.

The Dubs’ hurling pride took a severe battering in the wake of the Cats massive a 4-19 to 0-12 win in last Sunday’s Leinster semi-final.

But Dublin’s side U-21 players restored some of the county’s reputation with a 0-18 to 0-12 win over 2009 All-Ireland finalists Kilkenny in the provincial semi-final on Wednesday night, at Nowlan Park.

Now, Richie Stakelum’s troops have a Leinster final clash with Wexford on Wednesday July 14 to look forward to, while their senior counterparts face an All-Ireland qualifiers second round showdown against either Clare or Limerick, on Saturday July 10.

Along with defender Oisin Gough, and forwards Liam Rushe and David Treacy, utility player Kelly figures on both the Dublin senior and U21 teams.

“It’s always been the case that the U21 side takes a lot of encouragement when the county senior side does well and vice-versa,” said Lucan Sarsfields’ clubman Kelly, who plays in attack for the seniors but at wing-back for the U21s.

“So I’m sure that the U21s’ win over Kilkenny will be a big boost for the seniors. I know senior hurling is different to U21 hurling, but still to beat a team of Kilkenny’s calibre and in their own backyard shows there are plenty of good hurlers in Dublin.

“A lot of the senior hurling team were at the match on Wednesday night, and there’s also a major crossover of players from both teams.”

Kelly says he and his teammates headed into the clash feeling that they had nothing to fear from a Kilkenny side which had swamped Offaly by 2-31 to 0-8 in the quarter-finals.

“There was no sense of us having an inferiority complex,” he stressed. “We had beaten Kilkenny in the 2007 Leinster minor final, and most of the players from that match were on the two teams on Wednesday night.

“So that gave us a lot of confidence. Of course, we were given no chance by most people, and the fact that Kilkenny were red-hot favourites provided us with an additional incentive to come out on top.”

The Lucan man added that another major plus was that the seven senior panelists tried to minimise the mental scars inflicted by the 19 point hammering point by the Cats.

“The seven of us tried to put the memory of the senior match to the back of our minds as much as we could,” he pointed out.