Cummins: Daly being given ‘ammunition’

TIPPERARY goalkeeper Brendan Cummins believes the patronising reaction to Dublin’s qualification for Sunday’s League final will provide manager Anthony Daly with “huge ammunition” ahead of the championship.

Anthony Daly’s side sealed their place in the decider against Kilkenny with a last-round defeat of Cork in Páirc Uí Chaoimh. It will be their first appearance in the fixture since 1946 when they were beaten by Clare after a replay.

However Cummins believes that Daly’s side aren’t getting the credit they deserve from many hurling quarters.

“Anthony Daly has got huge ammunition for the rest of the summer,” said Cummins. “Everyone seems to be saying ‘it is great for Dublin’, and you know in people’s tone what they mean. If I was a Dublin player this would be driving me demented. I would be saying, ‘Jesus why are they saying this about us?’ They are second in the league on merit. They are going to play Kilkenny and they have a great chance of beating Kilkenny.”

Daly endured a difficult second term in charge of the Leinster side last year but the decision to hang around for 2011 has been justified by an impressive league campaign in which only Galway have had their number.

An opening draw with Waterford and another with Kilkenny were accompanied by defeats of Tipperary, Offaly and Wexford before the crucial win on Leeside which deprived Davy Fitzgerald’s Waterford of a crack at their south-eastern neighbours in the showpiece.

“Beating Cork below in Cork is a huge scalp, and for the rest of the summer, no matter what happens in this league final, Anthony Daly can say ‘nobody out there gives ye a chance, now off ye go,” Cummins added. “That is all that he needs to say. They are going to be a serious threat later in the year because when the ground gets harder the Dublin forwards have huge pace. When you have pace and you have natural goal-scorers, allied to a massive work-rate which they have, they are going to be a headache for everyone.”

Dublin face a Kilkenny side that has reached this juncture despite the absence of key players such as Henry Shefflin and John Tennyson along with others who have picked up knocks and niggles along the way.

Brian Cody, as is his style, has played down the significance of such an absentee list and the reality is that, unwelcome as injuries are for the individual, they can sometimes aid the collective by opening a door for others.

It helps, too, if the case in question is a county where there is an abundance of talent.

“We probably had more competition for places than we had before,” said Cummins. “You take last year and the highlight of our 2010 campaign was the five fellows who came off the bench, not the fellows who started. We have that now and guys now understand that when there is 30 on the panel the manager will use every one of those players to win an All-Ireland. That mindset has developed in Tipperary under Liam (Sheedy), and certainly Declan (Ryan) and the team have grown it even further. If you are playing well you get the jersey.”