Ger Cunningham: We’re trying to build a fortress here

Ger Cunningham must have wondered how his first competitive game in charge of Dublin would go when he went to bed on Saturday night, but he probably didn’t dare to believe it would turn out as satisfying as this.

That said, he did a good job of keeping a lid on this superb performance afterwards with words that expressed contentment with the day’s work, but in such a way as to make it clear it was merely one step on a long road.

“Great start,” said the Cork man. “You don’t want to lose the first match so it gives us a base to build on. We have another challenge next week in going down to Nowlan Park and we saw what Kilkenny did. We’re trying to build a fortress here. We have three games in Dublin so it’s important for our league prospects to win our home games.”

A score of 2-20 spoke of a good day’s work in a division that could yet come down to points differentials and it was achieved on a day some familiar faces were stationed in unfamiliar spots around the field.

Liam Rushe’s switch to full-forward is just the latest in a sterling but nomadic career while Michael Carton’s move to full-back in place of Peter Kelly was triggered by a desire to finally fix problematic position for the Dubs.

The more ‘out there’ move, at least on the face of it, was the switch to wing-back of Conal Keaney who was superb though Cunningham clearly expected a performance of such standard from the erstwhile forward. “Over the years I know Conal played wing-back and centre-back for his club. He’s a very good hurler. I don’t think he would have a problem in adapting to some of the new positions we are trying.

“Not just Conal. We have moved a few people around to try and see if they can help to develop and build the team. They all do their bit. I wouldn’t highlight just Conal but he did very well in his first game back at inter-county level.”

For Eamon O’Shea this was a bad day. He has known a few in his time as Tipperary manager and will be aware that one loss in February does not a crisis make, but he didn’t gloss over this loss either.

“It does concern me alright. We were optimistic enough, we had done a fair bit of work. We are only hurling one day a week at the moment, but I wouldn’t use that as an excuse. We were beaten by a team that wanted to win the ball more today.”

“In fairness to ourselves and our supporters, we want to win the games,” he added. “I wouldn’t be playing it down, we wanted to win the game and we’re disappointed we didn’t.”

It was a ‘fair cop’ kind of reaction from O’Shea who dismissed the suggestion that maybe the desire to try a few new ideas in early Spring was a contributory factor in this most unconvincing of displays.

Nor, he said, was this evidence of some September hangover.

“I hope not. I’ve stopped saying we’re going well in training so I won’t use that one.

“In terms of desire, they had strong desire today and we didn’t. We’ve been through a fair bit and I wouldn’t rule us out. I wouldn’t rule us out.”