Rushe takes heart from Dubs showing

LIAM RUSHE believes Dublin will be heartened by their performance in Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final defeat against Tipperary.

After losing the Leinster decider by 11 points, Rushe feels the nature of their display against the champions puts a positive spin on their season.

“We hardly played at all against Kilkenny but this time round there was disappointment with the loss but we were happier with the performance. We made it as hard and as tough a game as we could. We kept it going until the dying minutes. We knew we weren’t going to get hammered provided we played somewhere near our potential. We’ll meet up at some stage in the coming weeks and discuss it. Obviously, it won’t be long before we’re back in the gym and back with a new plan and hopefully back with Antony Daly as manager.”

Rushe is relishing the chance to atone for defeat in Saturday’s All-Ireland U21HC semi-final against Antrim.

“It is a bit hard to build myself up for this game but it’s just as big as the last one was. I’d prefer this than to be dwelling on the defeat like the rest of the lads were. It’s great to be in with a chance to get into an All-Ireland final.”