Liam Rushe has rejected talk of Dublin hurling being in disarray and warned rivals not to underestimate the potential of their new-look panel.
Manager Ger Cunningham has put in his faith in youth, drafting in a number of the Leinster-winning U21 and minor sides, and dropping stalwarts such as former captain Johnny McCaffrey and 2013 All Star Peter Kelly from the 38-man squad announced last week.
Shane Durkin and Paul Ryan have also walked away while another 2013 All Star, Danny Sutcliffe, seems set to sit out a second consecutive season.
That's led to speculation of discord in the ranks but St Patrick's clubman Rushe insists that turnover is a natural part of any team's development.
"I was surprised but I think it’s the nature of sport, and of GAA in particular," he told RTÉ Sport. "It seems like that every winter now, you see such and such has been dropped from a panel. That’s just the way it is, managers pick their panel and things move on.
"Inter-county panels are their own little world. There are always going to be people who are not happy with not getting game time, or this that or the other, or injuries are just mounting up and frustrations just grow, and that’s what happened with a certain number of people.
"The management didn’t envisage certain roles for certain players and maybe they weren’t happy with that, and disagreements happen, they happen in every panel and that’s what happened to us this year.
"The amount of people who have told me that we're finished before the year has even started I can't believe it."
"There are two ways you can look at it. You can look at it negatively, and people have said to me that we’re done and dusted already, but at the same time Clare came out of nowhere in 2013 (to win the All-Ireland), Waterford 2014 no-one expected a thing – that’s two seriously young panels, and nobody knew about (Hurler of the Year) Austin Gleeson then.
"The amount of people who have told me that we're finished before the year has even started I can't believe it."
There are just eight remaining players of the 20 who played in the 2013 Leinster championship-winning campaign, Anthony Daly's second last in charge, which ended a provincial famine of 52 years.
"That team peaked that year," observes Rushe. "That team, you could probably say, peaked in 2011. There was a gap. We were at the height of our powers, and then the following year we were robbed of a couple of lads by injury and by even more injuries the year after that.
"It was always a tight panel, we keep harking back to 2013 but we could have been as good in 2011, we were just decimated by injuries. In 2013 we got lucky with our run. We didn’t have a cruciate injury I don’t think that year, we were average around two every year up to that.
"Things took their toll, Anthony Daly went and a new manager came in and put a different spin on it, and that’s it."
At just 26, centre-back (and occasional forward) Rushe is now one of the elders of a very young squad, who will cut their teeth in the ultra-competitive environment of Division 1A of the Allianz Hurling League.
"It’s a new year and a seriously new panel with a lot of good, new additions, and I’m looking forward to working with them," said Rushe.
"Maybe the energy and enthusiasm that these lads bring might be what we need.
"I’m just looking forward to more development on that front because I wouldn’t want to burden too many of the young lads with too many expectations.
"The minors coming up, you wouldn’t expect too many to come on as starters. It’s more a step up from the likes of Oisin O’Rourke and we’re going to see Eoghan O’Donnell and Oisin Gough develop again. They going to have to step up now and be the leaders that we need them to be.
"If there are going to be five or six 19-20 year olds there, the 22-23 year-olds are going to have to the leaders."
"In playing terms, if you look back at the starting teams from last year, we haven't actually lost that much. I know Daire Plunkett started a game and Paul Ryan started a game and they did whole league campaigns but it's not like we're after getting rid of our whole half-back line or midfield or whatever. I think people's pronouncements are a bit premature.
"Sometimes it just takes a spark, a bit of luck and a little bit of a clean injury run."
Dublin will begin their Leinster championship campaign with a quarter-final against now-familiar foes Galway.
What does Rushe make of recent rumblings that the Tribesmen could reconsider their now eight-year participation in Leinster, in protest at being forced to travel for all their fixtures?
"I wouldn't like to see them go, I think they've enriched the competition. For a few years there I would have said that the Leinster championship was on a par with Munster, the games were just as good. Probably not so much last year but there have been a lot of draws, a lot of close results since they've come in.
"I know they're complaining over not getting home games (but) as far as I'm concerned I've never played Galway at home in a championship game - we've never played them in Parnell Park.
"You can call Croke Park home if you want but it's not like we were filling it out. I think in 2011 we played them in Tullamore and in 2014 in Tullamore as well."
Liam Rushe was speaking at the AIG Skills Challenge between Dublin and the All Blacks, which marked the launch of AIG Insurance's new discounts for drivers and their spouse/partners.
