Ó Cofaigh Byrne hoping for Championship gains with Dublin
Cuala and Dublin footballer, Peadar Ó Cofaigh Byrne, pictured at the announcement of Amgen’s extended title sponsorship of Cuala GAA. Under the agreement, Amgen will sponsor four adult hurling teams, five adult men’s football teams, four adult camogie teams and four adult ladies’ football teams. The partnership extends beyond the pitch, with Amgen providing one principal bursary and four supplementary bursaries annually to Cuala students entering third-level education in STEM and related fields.
By Paul Keane
Peadar Ó Cofaigh Byrne is a big player for Dublin these days, their midfield general.
Still, the Cuala colossus is one of just 56 players to have pulled on the sky blue jersey since the start of January.
It's a high level of experimentation that new boss Ger Brennan felt was necessary, repeating the point several times throughout the Allianz League campaign that he needed to uncover fresh Championship talent.
So it was that of the 33 players that enjoyed game time in their Division 1 campaign, 11 of them made their League debuts.
"The priority is to find more players and the risk-reward is obviously the fine line," explained Brennan after Dublin's League win over Monaghan.
In the end, Dublin fell just the wrong side of that fine line and were relegated to Division 2.
But the investment may yet prove sound if the players that Brennan has blooded make their mark in the Championship which begins for Dublin against Wicklow in Aughrim on Sunday.
Dublin confirmed a 39-man Championship panel on Thursday evening with Tim Deering (Skerries Harps), Cian Dunne (St Vincent's), Sean Guiden (St Sylvesters), Fiachra Potts (Na Fianna), Liam Smith (Ballinteer St John's) and Páidí White (St Sylvesters) among the rookie additions.
Pictured at the announcement of Amgen’s extended title sponsorship of Cuala GAA at Croke Park are Séan Brennan (Cuala player), Aisling Fay, Chairperson, Jennifer MacNeill Minster For Health, Paul Greene, Vice President, Site Operations, Amgen, Rachel Hartnett (Cuala player).
Speaking in Croke Park at the announcement that Amgen has extended its title sponsorship of his club, Cuala, through to 2029, Ó Cofaigh Byrne said he anticipates a number of Championship debuts to be doled out.
"I'd say so," nodded the 2025 All-Star nominee. "In fairness to Ger, whoever is playing well is going to be put in there so it doesn't matter how many games you've played before that. But I'd expect so, yeah.
"This year, there's a lot of lads from our club that have been involved, which is great. I think that representation from all the different clubs is great."
Ó Cofaigh Byrne doesn't necessarily agree that Dublin are in transition though, a word that can suggest they're not ready to win big Championship games and to take titles.
"In transition? I don't know," he said. "A lot of the players would have been known around Dublin anyway, because they would have been good enough at underage. Just to see them make that step then is great. There's a few players there who made their debuts in the League and will probably make them over the Championship as well, which is great. It just brings a bit of freshness, to be honest."
Peadar Ó Cofaigh Byrne in action against Galway last month. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
The Dublin management will be aware that whatever team they pick for Sunday's trip to Aughrim, they need to hit the ground running. The counties met in the exact same fixture 12 months ago and it was a highly competitive game, with Dublin eventually running out nine-point winners. Wicklow also defeated Division 4 champions Carlow last weekend by 11-points despite feeling that they didn't play to their full potential.
"I think the experience we all remember from Aughrim last year was that there was a heatwave before and it was absolutely scorching hot and the pitch was hard," said Ó Cofaigh Byrne. "It was a good game. It was like a cauldron down there, so I imagine it'll be the same. A good Dublin crowd travelled and hopefully that happens again."
Asked about Wicklow's main threats, Ó Cofaigh Byrne immediately pointed towards goalkeeper Mark Jackson, their two-point king. Remarkably, Jackson has converted 19 two-pointers this year, taking into account the O'Byrne Cup, Allianz League and last weekend's Leinster SFC opener when he struck three including one from play.
"He has a huge boot on him," smiled Ó Cofaigh Byrne. "And he's not just kicking them from frees, it's from play as well. He's some asset for them to have and they try to get as much out of him as they can. That'll be something definitely that going into the game we'll be trying to limit that.
"They're very well organised generally. They put it up to us last year so I'm expecting more of the same."
Ó Cofaigh Byrne's feeling around Dublin's own form and preparation for the Championship is that it has been good.
"We had a good four-week break there to go through things," he said. "I'm happy enough with how things have gone in some aspects this year and then obviously probably not as happy in others. Getting relegated isn't great but at the end of the day we kind of have this game now in mind, that's our focus. We only know since last weekend that it was Wicklow we were playing so we're just looking forward to that. We'll put that (relegation) behind us now."
