Eoghan ODonnell
By John Harrington
Eoghan O’Donnell believes the Dublin hurlers are good enough make a major breakthrough in the near future.
The Whitehall Colmcilles clubman is a star of the U-21 team that will contest Saturday’s Bord Gáis Energy All-Ireland semi-final against Galway and also made his breakthrough at senior level this year as a sticky corner-back.
And he’s convinced there’s enough talent in Dublin to enable them to go toe to toe with the best teams in the country.
“Yeah, absolutlely,” he said. “If you look at it, we beat Waterford in the League. We beat Galway in the League. Against Kilkenny in the Championship, we stayed with Kilkenny for a half. The second half didn’t work out for us.
“But there is a lot of work to do. They’re top class teams. But we’d be confident as anybody. A couple of decisions, a couple of balls – had they fallen differently during the year…”
O’Donnell is one of a number of young players who were drafted into the Dublin senior team by manager Ger Cunningham this year. The Cork native has yet to be officially ratified for a third year, but O’Donnell hopes he is allowed to stay on.
“I haven’t really paid any attention to the politics. There’s always rumors going around. Personally I hope he does stay on. He’s done a lot of hard work.
“There’s things we need to work on. But he’s put a huge platform there. And it could be a huge year next year.
“Ger has brought a lot of young lads on to the team. It’s important to bring them on. They’re the lads of the future.
“This year was coming to grips and finding our feet. So next year will be the real year when lads stand up and grab it by the scruff of the neck.”
Eoghan O'Donnell
The Dublin has gone through a period of transition under Cunningham with a number of older players either retiring or falling out of favour.
It remains to be seen whether others like Dotsy O’Callaghan and Niall Corcoran will come back in 2017 or hang up their boots too, but O’Donnell believes it’s vital they hold onto as many experienced players as possible.
“It’s important to have them there,” he said. “They can pass on a lot of knowledge and experience. They can settle a dressing room. Especially for young lads like me, who can talk to someone like Niall Corcoran, who has been there and done it.
“It’s a huge weight of our shoulders and it’s a good help. I don’t think decisions are made now. You have to take a couple of weeks or months to digest what happened and get your emotions in order.
“It’s a tough decision to make. They’ve given so much to Dublin hurling. I know Dotsy is carrying an injury at the moment.
“So I’m not sure what they’ll do. They’ve been great servants to Dublin hurling over the years and I hope we see them back.
“Even if it’s not so much playing on the pitch as giving people advice in the dressing-room. So hopefully we see them back but it’s their decision.”
O’Donnell believes the provincial success of the U-21 team proves there’s a lot of hurling quality in the county, and he’s hopeful it can give the momentum to win more and more silverware in the coming years.
“There hasn’t been a lot of silverware so it’s important to recognise,” he said. “There has been a lot of hard work going in at underage and there has been a lot development with juvenile teams.
“So success this year does reflect the work going in and hopefully we can build on that now. Hopefully it’s a matter of floodgates open once we get a win on the board and a winning mentality in the camp.”
