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O'Donnell hopes Cuala hurlers will make Dublin mentally tougher

Eoghan O Donnell

Eoghan O Donnell

By John Harrington

Eoghan O’Donnell believes the returning Cuala contingent will bring a winning mentality to the Dublin hurling team.

At least four of Cuala’s back to back winning All-Ireland club hurlers are expected to join up with Pat Gilroy’s in the short-term – David Treacy, Cian O’Callaghan, Jake Malone, and Sean Moran.

And O’Donnell is hopeful they can bring some much needed mental toughness to a group that looked psychologically fragile at times during the League campaign.

“Yeah that's what we're looking forward to most, having a couple of players in that know how to win and know how to get over the line no matter what it takes,” said O’Donnell.

“If you look at both the first match in Croke Park and the replay, them games are nip and tuck, and for Cuala to come out on that is a huge mental advantage.

“If they can bring that in and share it with us, we're open minded and we'd love to see that.”

Dublin certainly could have done with a harder mental edge in the Allianz Hurling League Quarter-Final against Tipperary.

They got off to a great start when they roared into an eight point lead after ten minutes, but they then suffered a dramatic collapse and ended up losing by 2-25 to 0-20 to a Tipperary team who played with 14 men for half the game.

“I suppose it was a kind of a mental thing that we just froze and nearly thought this was too good of a position to be in,” admitted O’Donnell.

“I suppose there's a disappointment for us that we went 0-10 to 0-2 up after 12 minutes and that margin probably wasn't going to sustain itself for the whole game. But when Tipp scored a point, we hoped to tag on another point. Or if Tipp got two, we'd hope to tag on one, whereas Tipp kind of got a roll on us and we couldn't stop that which is disappointing.

“But again it's a huge learning curve and if we can replicate that first-half of Tipperary, we won't be far off it come championship at all."

O’Donnell admits it’s been an “intense” year so far with Dublin because every player has been “gunning to impress” new manager Pat Gilroy.

The Whitehall Colmcilles man is in action for his club against Kilmacud Crokes in the Dublin hurling championship tonight and believes the temporary break from the inter-county scene has come at a good time.

“Yeah it's the first time we've almost had a proper break in the middle of the year to focus on club and I think it's been brilliant,” he said.

“I think it's actually been hugely successful that you can have a set amount of time and clubs can plan for their county players to come back and they know they can get a structure in place for that time so I think it's actually been really brilliant and it's been grand that we're not being pulled and dragged between two setups so you can just fully focus on each one and you're not falling between two gaps.

“You get grief from the lads that you know it must be championship time when the lads are coming back but it's good and it's great to get back.

“Playing with the club is very special, it's the lads that you grew up and live locally with so it is very special and to have a month during the year is refreshing.

“It's almost like a break coming back to the county setup fresh so it's been very beneficial I think.”

*** Eoghan O'Donnell was in Carton House to help mark the commencement of the 2018 AIG Cups & Shields season and to celebrate AIG’s 20th anniversary as a partner to the GUI and ILGU. AIG revealed details of their ‘AIG Golfer Anniversary Sale,’ where they are offering up to 20% off car insurance and up to 50% on home Insurance.**