Dublin welcome test against the best
Last weekend was their latest rung on the ladder —- going upwards. After good wins over Galway and Cork, they confounded the form team in the league, Waterford, with a five-point victory that was an accurate reflection of their superiority on the day.
“We had put two good performances back to back,” said manager Ger Cunningham yesterday, “which was good, obviously, but our away game against Tipperary in the opening game had been poor, so we were conscious of trying to put a good performance together away from home.
“Walsh Park isn’t an easy place to go to, so we were delighted with the result, and the performance in particular - we did a lot of good things in the game that we were very happy with.
“It keeps us in 1A, which is always important in terms of developing a team for the future, and it means that tomorrow’s game is more about the quarter-finals than survival.
“That’s certainly something we’d have been happy to take after coming out of Thurles the first night.”
Waterford manager Derek McGrath paid tribute to Dublin’s outflanking of the Déise tactically. Cunningham says he and his side were careful not to over-emphasise their opponents’ approach: “It’s a league match and at the end of the day you can only be concerned with your own performance, really, getting your own structures right, and that’s what we were trying to do.
“It can happen that you pay too much attention to the opposition and what they might do - and then when it comes to it they mightn’t do that at all, and you’re in trouble. Getting ourselves right, that’s much more important.”
Still, they have to pay attention to tomorrow’s opposition. Kilkenny have now beaten Tipperary and Cork with two late goal-scoring flourishes.
“It’ll ask serious questions of us, no doubt about that. The Cork game for Kilkenny wasn’t unlike the Tipperary game for them, they picked up four or five scores late on and two of those were goals, which were crucial to both games.
“Look, they’ve been doing that for years - when the game is there to be won, and needs to be won they’re able to do it, and they’ve done it time after time.
“That’s to their credit, obviously, that they can do that and it just shows us the size of the challenge we’re up against.
“It’s great for us to go down there having qualified already but we’ll be keen to keep our run going, to do well.”
Cunningham played on experienced, successful Cork teams himself. He recognises how potent a weapon Kilkenny’s reserve of experience is.
“Undoubtedly, that’s something that comes from having great players, players who don’t panic, and you’d certainly have to put TJ Reid and Richie Hogan in that category at the moment, and that’s just naming two.
“That know-how, that ability to win games and knowing what’s necessary to do that . . . they got goals last Saturday night and if they hadn’t gotten those goals they wouldn’t have won the match in Cork. They had limited opportunities.
“But they know when to go for the jugular, to take the opportunities, and that comes from having done it time and time again in the championship, at the top level and when it’s absolutely necessary. There’s a huge comfort to that for players, they can draw on that when the crunch comes.” Cunningham acknowledges two differing impulses for selection tomorrow — trying out new players or staying with those who’ve done well so far.
“Accommodating both those approaches is the thing, but we also have a few injuries to assess. Tomorrow’s a bit early for Peter Kelly, for instance, while Daire Plunkett picked up a knock against Waterford as well and won’t play either.
“So it’s a bit of both, we’re looking at a few players in the squad who are putting their hands up for selection while at the same time you have to think in terms of the guys who’ve been doing well for us, rewarding them by letting them hold onto the jerseys.”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
