Dublin ‘can cope with dual status’

CIARÁN WHELAN believes there is sufficient depth of talent in Dublin to cope with the practical pressures of being a top-class dual county.

The Dubs have been a regular feature at the tail end of the football championship in the modern era, without winning the ultimate prize, and now the hurlers have given notice of their burgeoning capabilities by claiming the Allianz Hurling League.

Conal Keaney, Tomas Brady and Johnny McCaffrey were among those who celebrated that defeat of Kilkenny yet all three and more could, had they chosen different paths, been on duty for the footballers when they lost their league decider to Cork seven days earlier.