Mattie Kenny won’t look back as Dublin primed to attack Kilkenny

If the Leinster SHC has prompted you to experience déjà vu, you’re not alone. For the second season in a row, Galway commence their campaign against the team expected to be the cannon fodder while Dublin and Kilkenny duel for starters.

Indeed, it seems the Leinster Council have merely cut and pasted last year’s Round 1, 2 and 5 schedules save for the obvious venue changes.

Some more variety would hardly have done the competition any harm but then this is all new to Mattie Kenny.

This time last year, he watched as Liam Blanchfield broke Dublin’s hearts in Parnell Park, the first of two successive games when they led going into additional time only to finish empty-handed.

That perceived lack of killer instinct might have been an area Kenny was eager to address but revisiting those close-run things doesn’t interest him.

“To be honest, this management team came in this year and we look forward to the challenge of 2019; we didn’t dwell on the past. I suppose the answer to your question is no, I didn’t (speak to players about 2018 Leinster SHC).”

Kenny is satisfied for the time being that his players are listening to him. “One of the most important traits in a player is they have to be coachable. You want them to become students of the game; that they have an open mind to try things differently.

As our coaching staff and myself as manager, we have to have that also. We have, I suppose, a philosophy of the way we want to play the game. We want to play an attacking brand of hurling, but within that there are different systems and different responsibilities to get a good functioning team.

“I find the Dublin senior players are really solid guys, really good people, and very, very coachable. So, I think there’s a good dynamic within our group and we’re working to try and improve our performances every day we go out.”

What Kenny achieved in guiding Cuala to back-to-back Tommy Moore Cups, the county’s run to a Division 1 semi-final this year and the heartening displays under Pat Gilroy in the 2018 SHC, indicate Dublin are capable of coming close to contending as they did in Anthony Daly’s time.

Yet even when Dublin were challenging phrases like “manufactured hurlers” were being thrown at the group. Kenny only sees natural talent in the capital.

Any interviews I’ve given in the past with Cuala, I always talked about the standard of the Dublin championship.

“And that’s something I repeated over a three-year period — the senior hurling championship in Dublin is a very, very competitive championship. There’s a lot of very strong clubs in Dublin, and the standard is very, very high.

From the success Cuala had, to navigate our way through the Dublin championship was one of the most difficult things we had to do. And once we got out of Dublin and went on the road in Leinster, that gave the lads a chance to express themselves more.

Not since the 2012 All-Ireland final replay has Kenny shared a sideline with Brian Cody and he doesn’t think Saturday will be as combative as Cody and Anthony Cunningham were that year.

“You’re so focused on your own team and what you’re trying to achieve with your own team… I don’t believe you’d even be aware that he’s there.

“Anyway, we’re kept well apart. But Brian and Kilkenny, they’ll be down there — they have their own targets, they’ll be looking for a good performance, and we’ll be there also trying to do the same thing.”

Kenny doesn’t entertain talk about Kilkenny being on the slide, citing their narrow 2018 quarter-final loss to Limerick.

“At the time, people mightn’t have realised how good Kilkenny were that day — and how good Limerick were. And, six or eight weeks later, Limerick were All-Ireland champions and I think we’re only seeing now, from the All-Ireland final, how good and worthy champions Limerick are. Such an outstanding team.

Mattie Kenny

“So, if you measure Kilkenny against that, they weren’t far off the mark last year and there’s no reason to think that they won’t be far off the mark this year.”

Kenny looks on Dublin’s Division 1 semi-final joust with Limerick in Nowlan Park as “not a disadvantage” but hardly an edge. What is considered an advantage for them, though, is the tightness of Parnell Park.

According to Nicky English, it will work in their favour when Wexford and Galway come to Donnycarney but Kenny wonders about those comments.

“Like, I’m the manager of the Dublin senior hurling team, I’m not the guy that makes the fixtures, I’m not the guy that provides the pitches. Parnell Park is Dublin’s home pitch and that’s where they play their home games.

“If they allow us into Croke Park, we’ll go in there also. But other codes give out about Dublin playing in Croke Park, and now they’re giving out about them playing in Parnell Park! So, it’s difficult to get right.”