Cat Carter's inside track on Lucan's boys in blue

Carter was at the Dublin-Kilkenny game in Parnell Park just as he will be in Croke Park on Saturday evening. There is no confliction and won’t be any blue garb. If Bellew and Crummey play well then great, but his cheers will be reserved for his county.

Sat, 08 Jun, 2024 - 07:56

John Fogarty

Before Dublin’s U20 Leinster final, the Lucan Sarsfields senior team put together a short video clip wishing their four representatives the best for the game against Offaly.

The messages were standard practice until just before the end manager Charlie Carter undid his coat to reveal a Dublin jersey.

“I told nobody about it,” he laughs. “It was only supposed to be for the WhatsApp group but of course my Tipperary coach Dermot English had to bury me and leak it on wider social media. Of course, I wouldn’t have done it if Kilkenny were still in the championship.”

It was February last year when Carter agreed to take over the west Dublin team after a successful spell with Wexford outfit St Martin’s. The three-time All-Ireland SHC and All-Star winner’s preconceptions about the strong athletic qualities of Dublin hurlers were proven right but he was slightly taken about by the skill levels.

“I knew fitness was never going to be an issue. I went in with an open mind otherwise but I can’t say I wasn’t surprised. The standards are very high and the levels of fitness are through the roof.

“I went in and couldn’t believe how fit Lucan were for the time of year I went in and you’re actually not stealing a march on anyone because Brigid’s down the road or Kilmacud are every bit as fit.

“When Dublin were going poorly in the league this year, I was a little surprised given what I had seen of the talent in the club championship. I won’t say I was amazed by it but I knew the quality of hurlers up there and everything is so meticulously done.”

As a player and later a long-standing national newspaper columnist, Carter rarely doubted Dublin’s conditioning. He remembers it being the difference when he was on a Kilkenny side beaten by them in the 2003 Walsh Cup and a trump card 10 years later as Dublin ended a 52-year wait for a Leinster senior title.

Lucan’s Chris Crummey is the typical physically-imposing Dublin hurler now. Although he appeared to have lost weight when he turned out in the early stages of the league this year having spent the previous inter-county season travelling, he is currently playing the hurling of his life.

“Going back a few years, everyone would have associated Lucan with Johnny McCaffrey and P (Peter) Kelly,” says Carter. “In the modern game, Chris Crummey would come straight into your head. Before I had any connection with Lucan, if you mentioned the club I’d have said Chris Crummey.

“He’s just a solid guy. I wouldn’t have much dealings with him last year because he was away and then after the semi he went back into county training but it’s a real good sign of a fella when they’re at club league matches and they’re not playing. All the lads involved with Dublin would go to the games, which tells you a lot about them.

“When he came back, he did okay for us. He wasn’t the Chris Crummey we all know he can be but that was understandable when he had been in Australia. Both Donal Burke and himself seem to be getting better with each game and that comes down to more and more exposure at that high level.”

Lucan’s issue last year wasn’t necessarily Crummey being unavailable – they qualified from their group with four wins from four without him. However, the six-week gap between their last round-robin game and semi-final left them sitting ducks against Na Fianna who had two games in between.

At the very least, the competition propelled players like John Bellew, who has been a stout defender for Micheál Donoghue in Leinster this year. “He’s a fair sticky corner-back and was brilliant for us in the championship last year,” Carter enthuses. “He just seems to be getting more confident every day he goes out. Maybe it took him awhile to get going but in the last three or four games his consistency has been great.”

Dublin are capable of winning, he says, but Kilkenny are forearmed. “Dublin did enough to win that group match and maybe a small bit of game management down the stretch cost them. Maybe Billy Ryan could have been taken down at source before (Eoin) Cody’s goal. We shouldn’t be applauding cynical play but you got to do what you got to do to get the job done.

“Humphrey Kelleher was sitting behind me at that game and beside me I had another coach from Lucan, Kieran Murphy, a Cork man or so he says. When Brian Hayes got the goal, he was saying it was over. I was telling him it wasn’t.

“Kilkenny’s card has been marked by what happened in Parnell Park and I think that could be a huge thing. Brian Hayes should excel around Croke Park but Cian O’Sullivan is a huge loss for Dublin. You’d imagine they will be anxious to run at Kilkenny on Saturday but Kilkenny will be prepared.”