Keaney lights up foggy Croker

FOR 35 minutes, the few thousand who bothered to come to Croke Park to see the Dublin hurlers take on Tipperary in round two of the Allianz Hurling League on Saturday evening were left frustrated, disappointed.

Not, however, because of any lack of effort or display by the home team, but rather because of the cold and dense fog that swept in over the floodlit stadium just before the first whistle, and hung around for the whole of that half, reducing visibility to the point where following the flight of the ball was impossible in the stands.

A pity, because from what we could make out through the mist, Dublin were actually playing extremely well, went toe-to-toe with the All-Ireland champions, and in a match of real quality deservedly led at the break, 1-10 to 1-9.

The fog did clear somewhat for the second half but the scoring rate dropped off considerably, Dublin just about hanging on to their one-point lead despite a succession of wides in the final minutes.

Tipperary lined out with a good core of the team that had won them the All-Ireland, though most of those were in defence and midfield. Several changes up front, but the absence of All-Star forwards Lar Corbett (hurler-of-the-year), Eoin Kelly(recently married but who came on in the second-half), and Noel McGrath, along with John O’Brien, meant a further opportunity for some of the fringe players to shine. And, in that opening half, two of those, Pa Bourke and John O’Neill, did their chances no harm at all, Bourke with four points, O’Neill with 1-2.

Dublin too lined out with anexperienced core, but they also have injury concerns, not least the talented David Treacy and Alan McCrabbe, and that situation was aggravated when both corner-backs had tobe replaced before a ball was pucked. Just as he had done in last week’s opening round draw with Waterford. However, it was transferee Conal Keaney who stood out for the Dubs; 14 points the former county senior footballer finished with. Six wides he had, two of those admittedly huge frees from deep inside his own half, but make no mistake about it – this guy is the real deal. “Oh he’s a great player,” agreed Dublin managerAnthony Daly. “I wouldn’t have been going to meet him (to persuade him to hurl) three times a year for the last few years otherwise! Just watch him in the club championship, he’s probably the best forward in the county, a great addition to us. He’s a quiet fella, but you can’t avoid the headlines when you score 14 points.”

It was a rip-roaring contest, Dublin particularly hitting hard, but Tipp manager Declan Ryan – no wilting lily in his own playing days – had no qualms with that. “Big hits on both sides but that’s what you’d expect at this level. Dublin will always bephysically fit, they play the game physically, and Tipperary would be known for that at times too!” Of real concern for Declan, however, the number of frees conceded. Of Keaney’s 14 points, 10 came from placed balls, six in the first-half alone just as had been the case in last week’s loss to Kilkenny, while Pa Bourke got nary an opportunity for Tipperary. “Am I allowed comment on referees?” Declan asked, before continuing on a more self-critical note. “Yeah, that’s something we looked at after the (Kilkenny) game, something we’ll have to look at again — it’s too much to be giving away, no doubt about that.”

The second-half saw the introduction of a few of the Tipperary big guns, team captain Eoin Kelly in the 50th minute, shortly followed by Benny Dunne and James Woodlock. They made an impact too, Kellyparticularly, but not enough, and with Keaney still doing the needful for Dublin, the boys in blue managed to hang on for what was a fully-deserved win.

Consistency, that’s now the name of the game for Anthony Daly and Dublin. “We’re working on it, talking about it, trying to get fellas to mature a bit, get them to realise that you can’t afford off-times in a game. We talked about that all this week, we went something like 20 minutes against Waterford (last week) without a score and that’s worrying, yet we put up 2-19. You’re telling them, get that 20 minutes ironed out, stay in it. Our tackling was better today than last week. It’s only the second round of the week, early doors, but it’s crucial for us to stay in division 1 and this is a good way towards doing it. We’re not there yet but we can be looking up now instead of looking over your shoulder like last year, we were under pressure going into every game after the Tipp match (Dublin actually won that one by nine points, but then had to beat Limerick on the last day to avoid the drop) when it looked like we were going to be in a dogfight in the end. It’s important now we have the heads right for Tullamore in two weeks. I think the Walsh Cupfinal (against Kilkenny) is next weekend as well so there’s no let-up in theschedule.”

Scorers for Dublin: C Keaney 0-14 (0-9f, 0-1 65); D O’Dwyer 1-0; L Rushe, J Boland, 0-1 each.

Scorers for Tipperary: P Bourke 0-7 (0-2f, 0-1 65, 0-1 s/l); J O’Neill 1-2; S McGrath 0-2; M Gleeson, B O’Meara, E Kelly, B Maher (free), 0-1 each.

Subs for Dublin: R O’Dwyer for Ryan (30); P Ryan for McCormack (48); D Plunkett for D O’Dwyer (52); L Ryan for Carton (58).

Subs for Tipperary: B O’Meara for Fanning (35); E Kelly for Carey (50); B Dunne for Gleeson (55); J Woodlock for Ryan (61).

Referee: J Sexton (Cork).