Cunningham encouraged by showing of new faces

Dublin hurling boss Ger Cunningham was encouraged by the displays of some of his newcomers in last Wednesday night’s Bord na Móna Walsh Cup victory over Carlow in Parnell Park.

The Dubs starting team in their 2-17 to 1-13 defeat of Carlow included four players who lined out for the minor hurlers in 2016 as they captured the Leinster MHC – Daire Gray, Conor Burke, Donal Burke and Cian O’Sullivan.

“The pitches are heavy and all that. But it’s still a good opportunity for younger guys, lads from last year’s minor squad and the under-21s,” says Ger

“So it’s a step up for them and it will maybe take them a couple of weeks to adjust to the pace of senior hurling. But there were some good performances."

Next Wednesday night the hurlers and footballers of Dublin are in action in Parnell Park in a double-header against UCD (hurling 6.30; football 8.15).

"We’ve brought fellas in with a view to giving them a bit of training and to try and make the training panel for the League.

“In fairness to Carlow, they came up and they were very competitive so it was a good eye-opener and a good opportunity for some of our younger, inexperienced guys to experience what senior hurling is about.”

Looking ahead to the NHL Ger adds: "We’ve got to look after ourselves. We’ve got three home games, two in Croke Park. So we would be looking to be as competitive as we can.

"A huge ask to go into Croke Park with a very young squad against Tipperarybut that’s the challenge and that’s what we’re building towards.”