Hard work is hallmark of this U20 hurling group: Paul O’Brien

Dublin under-20 manager Paul O'Brien is hoping his side can pull out one more big performance in Saturday's Saturday’s Bord Gáis Energy All-Ireland U20HC (2020) decider against Cork in Nowlan Park (7.15, LIve TG4).

Dublin upset the odds when defeating Galway in the recent Leinster final and will enter Saturday's encounter in a positive frame of mind.

Cork defeated Tipperary in the Munster final just before last Christmas (1-16 to 1-14) having overcome Kerry (2-24 to 2-10) and Limerick (2-29 to 0-21, after extra-time) in their earlier games.

“As a group, they are very ambitious and while they were thrilled to win Leinster, they know that there is more work to be done," said Paul.

“They want to win things, not just for themselves or for the group, but also for Dublin hurling and I think you could see that determination and desire throughout the match with Galway.

“They worked so hard as a unit that night, from the first whistle to the last, and that is a hallmark of this particular group.

“If you have that work ethic in place, then you’re never going to be too far away in terms of competing at this level and that is what helped us get over the line against Galway.

“The most pleasing aspect from the management’s perspective is the manner in which the lads were determined to make up for any mistakes that they made on the pitch.

“We were probably guilty of a number of errors on the night but instead of the lads letting those errors affect their game, their first reaction was to rectify the issue and not allow their heads to drop," added Paul.

“There is definitely room for improvement from us and it was far from the perfect performance against Galway and our training since then has been to iron out those issues.

“To be fair to the players, it hasn’t been the management that have been focusing on these areas of improvement but rather, it has come from them.

“They are a very honest group in terms of their hurling and they have taken on the responsibility as well as ourselves in terms of addressing these issues.

“Hopefully, the match against Galway will have gotten rid of most of those errors as we are going to have to improve again to get the better of Cork.

“They (Cork) are a strong team, who will go into the game as favourites, just like Galway were, and some of them have been involved with their senior team during the National Hurling League.

“We have a bunch of lads that are acutely aware of Dublin’s lack of success in terms of winning All-Irelands and they are striving to rectify this.

“This doesn’t add any excess pressure on them but they appreciate that there is a need for hurling role models in the county and they desperately want to win something, not just for themselves but for Dublin hurling.

“Player development is a massive part of hurling at this level but we can’t lose sight of the overall goal of winning an All-Ireland and we are confident we can do that,“ he said.