Rushe seeking six shirt

A permanent home, that’s what nomadic Dublin senior hurler Liam Rushe would like this summer, a place he can call his own, preferably in the number six shirt.

“It would be nice to have a spot nailed down, hurling skills are general but you do need specific training to play in specific positions, you need to get in the right mindset, at least know if you’re going to be a forward or a back at the weekend.

“I’d like to nail down centre-back but if I’m required somewhere else it would be nice to be put there for a few weeks.”

Against Limerick in the Division 1B promotion final Rushe got a chance at centre-back and excelled as Dublin succeeded in bouncing straight back up to the top tier for next year. That put Dublin in a league semi-final proper, against Tipperary where they were handed a 4-20 to 0-17 lesson by the Premier men.

“I got a bit of a lesson, they pulled us all over the place in the back-line, there wasn’t really a centre-back at all for the whole game so that was a bit confusing. We played right into their hands and that was why we left in four goals.”

Fast-forward a couple of weeks, Tipperary on Sunday in Nowlan Park in the league final against Kilkenny. Again the Tipperary attack went about first discommoding, then dismantling the Kilkenny defence. But the ploy didn’t work against the All-Ireland champions, and Rushe admits the video will be studied in detail to learn some lessons.

“Yeah, Kilkenny’s strength is in their six backs, they rarely get pulled anywhere, always in their positions, always two midfielders protecting them so that their half of the field is choc-a-bloc no matter what ; even in counter-attacks it’s still very hard to pull them out of position. When Tipp won the All-Ireland in 2010 that’s what they managed to do and it was a first, they had the Kilkenny back-line at sixes and sevens, everything went right for them.

Galway did the same thing to an extent last year. But you know, just like in 2011 and 2012 Brian Cody managed to get them back in order and for the All-Ireland replay last year they held their positions again.”

Linchpin and anchorman of that Kilkenny defence is the magnificent Brian Hogan not dissimilar in his command of that position to the Clare centre-back of the 90s, Sean McMahon. An advantage both Brian and Seanie have and had over Liam, however, both were ever-presents in that position.

With a visit to Wexford Park next on the agenda for Dublin, Leinster championship opener, that’s an advantage Liam Rushe would appreciate himself.