By Eoin Ryan
New Dublin hurling manager Ger Cunningham believes his team have the talent to challenge for titles.
Cunningham takes charge of his first final with the Dubs in the Walsh Cup decider against Galway at Croke Park on Saturday .
The Corkman took over in October after Anthony Daly’s six years came to an end and he is optimistic Dublin can be contenders again after winning a league title and reaching an All-Ireland semi-final under his predecessor.
Asked whether they could match the likes of Kilkenny, Tipperary and his native county, Cunningham told RTÉ Sport: “Absolutely. The guys that have come into the panel – there’s some really good, talented hurlers there.
“They’ve settled in well and there’s some very good players there, and hopefully in the course of the league we’ll get a chance to introduce them and give them a chance to put their hand up for inclusion on the team.
“It’s very earlydays really - we’ve played a couple of Walsh Cup matches. But the mindset is very strong. These guys have been at that level – been in Leinster finals, been in All-Ireland semi-finals, and they’ve won leagues. So the mindset is strong; I don’t see any difference really in the mindset.”
"The mindset is strong; I don’t see any difference really in the mindset."
Cunningham is relishing the chance of a run-out at Croke Park before Dublin host Tipperary in their Allianz Hurling League opener on 14 February.
The Walsh Cup will serve as a curtain-raiser to Saturday evening’s football clash between Dublin and Cork but Cunningham is more concerned with being ready for the league than lifting pre-season silverware.
“It’s a great game to get, a week before your first league match,” he said. “To play a top county like Galway in Croke Park; to play in Croke Park any time is great, and there should be a nice, good atmosphere there on Saturday night under lights.
“It’s another game really, to an extent. We’ve had three so far in the Walsh Cup and they’ve been good opportunities for me to get to know the players and I suppose for the players to get to know me as well, rather than going straight into a national league and you’re kind of feeling your way.
“The national league is where the immediate focus is but, the old saying, we'll take one game at a time. When you're new in a job, the more games you get like this you get the opportunity as selectors to see more players. We're new to each other and the more games we get to see the better.”
The six-team format of Division 1A leaves sides little margin for error and Cunningham believes the pressure to avoid relegation and try to qualify for the knock-out stages makes it harder to experiment with his new side.
“Division 1A is really competitive,” he said. “It does limit you to an extent. You can't experiment to the extent that you would have done before where you would have matches that you could have taken a chance on.
“There are some top quality teams in Division 1B as well. If you go down and play Waterford or Limerick or Wexford, Antrim, Laois and Offaly, they're are some very good teams there as well. It's like anything, you want to be at the top level playing against the top teams.”
Taking over from a big personality like Daly seems a daunting challenge but Cunningham insists the players are a highly motivated group who have adapted well to the change of manager.
“They’ve made me feel very welcome in relation to coming up here,” he said. “Dalo and his team were with them for five or six years, so they’d have been used to Dalo’s style of management and his personality and got to know those guys and had success with them.
“When you’re there for six years, as he’s been there, and had success and brought Dublin from where it was into winning national leagues and winning Leinster titles and competing for All-Ireland titles, there’s bound to be a situation where there is a very strong bond there.
“So it’s probably taken the players a while to get used to my style, and me to get used to their style.”
Cunningham also signalled his intention to introduce new blood to the squad.
“You look at the balance of the team – there’s guys that were there for the five or six years with Dalo, but at the same time you have to evolve it and you have to bring on some new guys, and we’ve introduced some new guys onto the training panel,” he said.
“The Dublin minors played in two All-Ireland finals, a couple of years ago, so there is talent there. [The aim is] just to try find some new talent; integrate it with the guys that were there.”
The former Cork All-Ireland winner and selector said that he was disappointed to see Tommy Dunne depart as Dublin coach and that he would move to replace him in the longer-term.
"It’s probably taken the players a while to get used to my style, and me to get used to their style."
“It had been flagged early on when we were talking that he had applied for a course in UL. In the last couple of weeks he got called in,” said Cunningham.
“It obviously put a lot of pressure on his time; to be able to do part-time education plus his job, his family and his travelling and all that kind of stuff. So yeah, very disappointed to lose him.
“I’ve done some coaching and the lads with me, [selectors Gearoid O Riain and Shay Boland] have done a bit of coaching as well. So, the interim or short-term plan is that we’ll do it between us but we will put someone in as a head coach, we will appoint somebody.”
Ger Cunningham was speaking at the launch of Ballygowan water and Energise Sport as the official hydration partners of Dublin GAA.
