Shane McGrath says that Dublin might have serious problems this spring without the injured Donal Burke.
The Blues started their Allianz Hurling League campaign on Saturday with a comprehensive defeat to Tipperary, with Micheál Donoghue's charges being outplayed for large parts of the game at Parnell Park.
Donoghue was able to name eight players who started last year's All-Ireland SHC quarter-final exit to Clare, but Burke wasn't one of them, as he continues his return from a serious hamstring injury suffered in that game against the Banner.
The Na Fianna man was a star performer for Dublin in 2023, hitting 2-59 in the Championship and receiving an All-Star nomination for his efforts.
The big date in hurling calendars in the capital is 21 April, the day they're set to face Wexford in their Leinster Championship opener. It's a game which could decide both county's summer with the beaten side becoming massive outsiders to make it beyond the provincial championships.
Before that, the Dubs will look to put the defeat to Tipperary out of their minds quickly with Limerick and Galway to come, as well as potentially tricky ties against Antrim and Westmeath.
"I just don't know what they're going to do, or how they're going to do it, without Donal Burke," McGrath said on the RTÉ GAA Podcast.
"It's been that way for the last few years. I know he has a bad hamstring injury, that he didn't play with his club - imagine what he could have done for Na Fianna if they had him, losing the Leinster final to the O'Loughlin's boys.
"Where's the best place for Eoghan O'Donnell to slot into this team? He's a top-class defender but do they feel they need him in attack without Burke? We all know him, from an inter-county standpoint, as a top class defender or full-back.
"They are a new team. If I went down through the programme you'd know some of them from the minors or U20s. It's a rebuild. Last year was the start of it, that has continued this year and I think that was evident in Parnell on Saturday."
For his native Tipperary, the victory - and they way they achieved it - was a real positive for McGrath in a ground where sides from the Premier County have been caught over the last decade and a half, with 2015 and 2010 being low points.
"We never travelled well to Parnell, even when things were going well," McGrath pointed out.
"Even the last time we were up there we got a trimming. So that was a big thing for the group to go up there and put down a statement of intent to say, 'maybe previous Tipp groups have come here and haven't done well - it's not going to be the same for us'."
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