Gilroy going for morning glory

DUBLIN manager Pat Gilroy has revealed he will embark on staging a second successive season of early morning winter training sessions, starting at 6.30am tomorrow.

Just hours after the inter-county collective training ban ended, Gilroy saw his men claim a New Year’s Day win over the Dubs Stars in an entertaining affair in Castleknock.

Afterwards, he confirmed the majority of his training panel will be back at the grindstone before they go to work and college tomorrow morning.

“We’ll be back training properly on Tuesday and we’ll be working off the excesses of Christmas. Most of them seem in reasonable enough shape to be fair to them.

“We might even go a bit earlier this year to give lads a chance to get back into work!” smiled Gilroy. “Lads prefer it, I think, to being out five nights a week.

“There is stuff that you really have to do this month and it’s the only chance you get to do it all year. We’ll do a little bit of different stuff.

“It depends on the weather as well because if the weather turns against us again it becomes very difficult. So we’ll just have to see how it goes.”

Gilroy watched on in Russell Park as two of his finds from last year, Michael Dara McAuley and Eoghan O’Gara, banged in superb goals either side of the break to help beat the Dubs Stars.

After O’Gara’s 20th minute rocket, Dublin held a 1-8 to 0-7 lead at half-time and looked comfortable throughout the second-half with Darragh Stapleton and McAuley beating netminder Ryan O’Flaherty.

Three minutes from time, Mark Vaughan drilled a low goal past Stephen Cluxton for the Dubs Stars. Almost now the forgotten man of Dublin football, Vaughan almost set up a grandstand finish a minute later when he smacked the bar but Gilroy’s men held out.

However, the injuries picked upearly in the game threatened to overshadow this affair. Each team had exhausted their three-man benches by the 25th minute.

Among the casualties were Dubs Stars full-back Rory O’Carroll who rolled his ankle just seconds into the game and his opposite number Paul Brogan who tweaked a muscle behind his knee. Gilroy played down the bevy of injuries but admitted he will be without a lot of players when Dublin begin their O’Byrne Cup campaign away to Westmeath next Sunday.

While 2010 captain Paul Griffin may return to action later this month after missing most of last season, Gilroy will be without Ross McConnell, Eamon Fennell and Paul Flynn until the end of February.

“There are an awful lot of players that we can’t use in the O’Byrne Cup – I think on last count we had 24 lads either with colleges, injured or with Kilmacud so it will be a new-look team playing.”

Gilroy also described the rule which restricts managers to picking a 26-player panel for National League games as “a bit of a pain”.

“In the league you’re only allowed 26, which makes it a bit harder and tighter for fellas to be in the squad.

“It makes it tougher for us too dealing with injuries because injuries happen and you still want to be able to play a full 15-a-side game in training. “It’s a bit of a pain, the 26-man panel is difficult to deal with but you have to get on with it.”

Scorers: Dublin: MD McAuley 1-2; D Stapleton, E O’Gara 1-1 each; A Hubbard 0-3; K McManamon, D Kelly 0-2 each; C Mullins, D Nelson 0-1 each.

Dubs Stars: T Quinn 0-6 (five frees); M Vaughan 1-3 (two frees); B Kavanagh, P Andrews 0-3 each; A Morrissey 0-2, P Burke 0-1.

DUBLIN: S Cluxton; M Fitzsimons, P Brogan, M Devereux; P Casey, J McCarthy, D Nelson; MD McAuley, C Mullins; A Hubbard, K Bonner, D Daly; D Kelly, E O’Gara, K McManamon. Subs: D Stapleton for Daly, C Murphy for Mullins (both 15); G Brennan for Brogan (21).

DUBS STARS: R O’Flaherty; W Lowry, R O’Carroll, G Norton; K Nolan, B McGrath, S Murray; C Dias, K Darcy; A Morrissey, T Quinn, L Óg Ó hEineachain; D Connolly, B Kavanagh, P Andrews. Subs: C Lambe for O’Carroll (2); P Burke for Dias (15); M Vaughan for Connolly (22).

Referee: K Tighe (St Annes).