Joey Boland: Dublin hurling needs new firepower

Former Dublin Hurler Joey Boland is photographed at his Sport Physio Ireland practice at the launch the new virtual AIG Health Plus portal which offers free membership at www.aig.ie/dubgym for all Dublin GAA club players and members to a unique physiotherapy-led fitness and health online resource that includes virtual gym membership. Picture: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

Former Dublin hurler Joey Boland believes they've slipped back to "between eight and six" in the national pecking order and need to uncover new forwards to rise up the ranks.

Boland lined out in All-Ireland semi-finals in 2011 and 2013 under Anthony Daly, winning a Leinster medal in 2013 as well as an All-Star nomination.

But they've only made it to two quarter-finals since, in 2014 and 2015, lost to Laois in 2019 and exited last season's Championship after defeat to Cork in a Round 1 qualifier.

In the last five seasons, Dublin's only wins over top ranked opposition came against Wexford (2016) and Galway (2019).

"Realistically, on any given day, Dublin could be between eight and six, based off the last three or four years," said Boland. "There is potential to go up to number five, or four, on any given season but, realistically, they just haven't been producing regularly enough, it's too hot and cold.

"The Laois result two years ago, if you take your eye off the ball for a second, you can go right down to number 10, anyone can beat you. It's tricky but anything between eight and six at the moment is where I'd place them."

To improve that ranking, former half-back Boland believes they need to uncover some new forwards. The comment chimes with the remarks of Sunday Game analyst Donal Og Cusack who claimed last year that Dublin haven't had a serious forward "that you'd lose sleep over" for decades.

Cusack maintained "the focus on Dublin hurling must be about producing top class forwards because they are not there".

"We probably need to create one or two forwards that are going to be more dangerous so that if the game is in the balance, they'll always come out with a goal or they'll always come out with 1-2 without even playing well," said Boland. "I just think we need to unearth one or two of them and we'll be very, very close."

Dublin forward Donal Burke won an All-Star nomination last season after striking the bulk of their scores, hitting 1-16, 0-12 and 0-11 tallies in their three Championship games.

"The best form of defence as far as I could always see was when a forward does something out of the ordinary and catches a ball over two of their defenders and sticks it over," said Boland. "It just gives all the defence a lift and I think that we need possibly one or two more of them."

Meanwhile, Boland, who runs the Sports Physio Ireland practice, urged the GAA to provide considerably more than a four-week window for preparation when games resume.

Boland said there was a "big increase in injuries" last year because of the lack of adequate preparation time.

"Especially the inter-county season last year, there were a lot of players taking painkillers and playing through because it was such a short period," he said.

-  The new virtual AIG Health Plus portal offers free membership at www.aig.ie/dubgym for all Dublin GAA club players and members to a unique physiotherapy-led fitness and health online resource that includes virtual gym membership.