Dubs’ dawn patrol reaps reward

PAT GILROY was keen to play down the significance of Dublin’s early morning training as they overcame Carlow in their Bord na Mona O’Byrne Cup opener at Dr Cullen Park.

The All-Ireland champions’ 6am sessions began last Tuesday and Gilroy took satisfaction from the win at the end of a “hard week” of training.

Dublin kicked eight unanswered second-half points to advance to a meeting with UCD in Parnell Park next Saturday evening after Carlow levelled the game on three occasions.

Days after returning from holidaying in New York, Tomás Quinn came off the bench to score five and finished his team’s top scorer during that purple patch.

Gilroy wasn’t reading much into the result. “It’s just part of the pre-season preparation for the league and you’re also just continuing on the work that you’re doing in the week,” he said.

“You can’t be resting fellas going into these games when you’re building up on your whole fitness. In fairness, our shooting in the first half was appalling but you’re going to expect that at this time of year. Fellas are heavy-legged and that.”

Gilroy didn’t detect any player dissent about the early morning training.

“Not at all. It was completely the opposite. They were champing at the bit to get out and I suppose the weather isn’t too bad either so that maybe helped. There has been great enthusiasm shown for it.

“Look, it’s only for a couple of weeks that we do that. It gets them back into it and means lads aren’t out every night of the week.

“You’d want to be totally committed to it if you’re going to get up at 5.30 in the morning to go training.”

On the new players such as Micheal McCarthy, Davy Byrne and Karl Connolly, Gilroy added: “They’re only there seven days. They’ve got a quick grasp of things and I suppose they’ve been watching the team. I was very happy with the guys that were there.”

A realistic Carlow manager Luke Dempsey took positives from the game: “We were delighted to have the All-Ireland champions here and to see, as a Division 4 county, that every time you make a mistake it will be punished by a Division 1 outfit.

“We were delighted with the effort our lads made, especially to bring it back to nine-all.”

With three U21s featuring in the team, Dempsey is optimistic about what’s coming through the ranks while hoping to move on from news of midfielder Thomas Walsh’s emigration.

“I’d be more inclined to mention the new up-and-coming U21s who will replace the name of Thomas Walsh and any other Carlow player from the past. He will be a loss of course because we have such a small pool of players.”

Dublin were commanding in general play and were better than their two-point lead at half-time (0-6 to 0-4) suggested after they clocked up nine wides. Three of them came from debutant, St Sylvesters’ McCarthy, but he found his range just as many times in a decent first-half display.

Michael Darragh Macauley looked the pick of the Dublin players with a list of lung-busting runs on the heavy sod, one of them earning him a point to make it 0-5 to 0-2 while he also delivered passes to Diarmuid Connolly and McCarthy for points.

Carlow’s economical finishing kept them in touch, Brendan Murphy booming over a couple of handsome scores. And they began the second half the brighter with Murphy, Derek Hayden and Darragh Foley pointing to tie up the game after Connolly had extended Dublin’s lead to three.

Some tit-for-tat scoring followed with Con Murphy and Sean St Ledger cancelling out Ross McConnell and Quinn scores.

But as it turned out Quinn was only warming up and added another two with minutes. Connolly notched his third before Quinn and McCarthy posted frees to put five in it.

With Carlow flagging, the visitors scored three more, Quinn sending over his fifth with Eamon Fennell and Rory Corcoran converting chances.

Scorers for Dublin: T Quinn (2fs) 0-5, M McCarthy 0-4 (2fs), D Connolly 0-3, B Cullen, MD Macauley, R McConnell, E Fennell, R Corcoran 0-1 each.

Scorers for Carlow: Brendan Murphy 0-3, D St Ledger, D Foley (2fs) 0-2 each, Brian Murphy, D Hayden, C Murphy 0-1 each.

DUBLIN: M Savage; C O’Sullivan, M Fitzsimons, D Daly; K Connolly, G Brennan, D Byrne; MD Macauley, R McConnell; D Lally, B Cullen, P Brogan; D Connolly, M McCarthy, P Andrews.

Subs: J Small for Brennan (ht), T Quinn for Lally (47), E Fennell for Macauley (57), R Corcoran for Andrews (64).

CARLOW: T O’Reilly; BJ Molloy, C Lawlor, B Kavanagh; G Nolan, T Bolger, B Lambe; Brendan Murphy, D Foley; Brian Murphy, C Murphy, E Finnegan; P Reid, C Coughlan, D St Ledger.

Subs: D Mulvaney for Nolan, D Hayden for Reid (both ht), C Mullins for C Murphy (57), E Ruth for Finnegan (60), C Walshe for Brian Murphy (65).

Referee: Anthony Nolan (Wicklow).