by Séamus Leonard
Dublin travel to Portlaoise on Saturday (5.00pm) seemingly with real belief that they can get the better of Kilkenny in this Leinster Senior Hurling Championship semi-final.
Not that the Dubs shouldn’t travel with any conviction, but they have not shown enough in the last 12 months to suggest they can cause another upset.
They famously claimed the 2011 Allianz League Division 1 title with a resounding win over the Cats. And although they reached an All-Ireland semi-final later in the year (where they fell to Tipperary), the Dubs never seemed to garner the requisite momentum from the league triumph to put themselves in contention for Championship success.
This season, on the face of it, has seen Anthony Daly’s men regress. They lost a relegation play-off replay with Galway, which means they will ply their trade in Division 1B next season. There are few benefits in dropping to the second tier, not least for a team with aspirations as high as Dublin’s.
There are mitigating factors, of course. The Dubs were competitive in virtually all their league outings, but picked up the unfortunate habit of coming out on the wrong side of tight results.
Cats boss Brian Cody made a salient point to the Kilkenny People when he said: "Dublin may have been relegated in the league but as easily they could have won the league. I would be certain their target was never the league - their target was Saturday."
It should also be noted that the Dubs did manage to score six goals against Kilikenny at Nowlan Park, however, which - as anyone who follows the ancient game will know - is as rare as an appearance of Halley’s Comet.
Daly was also constrained by injuries during the spring, but that crisis appears to have mostly resolved itself. Conal Keaney’s rehabilitation, in particular, will hearten the Metropolitans.
Conversely, it is Kilkenny who now find themselves with key players on the treatment table.
Michael Fennelly broke an ankle in the league final victory over Cork. The Ballyhale Shamrocks man has developed into the country’s most able midfielder, and has arguably become more important than club-mate Henry Shefflin to the Noresiders’ fortune.
But at least Fennelly’s absence is offset by the return of ‘King Henry’ to competitive inter-county action. He is selected at wing-forward in a side that is peppered with household names such as Tommy Walsh and Brian Hogan, with a dash of youth in the form of Fennelly’s replacement Cillian Buckley.
Cody is a wily old fox, and is careful never to give opponents any reason to take motivation from his words.
Cody is a wily old fox, and is careful never to give opponents any reason to take motivation from his words. But you get the sense that he truly believes Dublin have the wherewithal to put it up to his charges.
But whether the Dubs have what it takes to unseat the Leinster champions is another matter altogether.
Verdict: Kilkenny
