Minor hurlers ready for Banner test
THEY were known as the Niall Quinn team and in 1983 they came within a few points of taking the All Ireland Minor Hurling crown back to the banks of the Liffey.
The captain of the team that day that saw the Metropolitans lost to Galway on a 0-10 to 0-7 scoreline was John Murphy, with Quinn lining out at corner forward.
Quinn would go on to forge a highly successful soccer career for himself abroad, while 27 years later Murphy attempts to take the current crop of Dublin minors to Croke Park in the first week in September.
Before that Dublin take on Clare in the semi-final on Sunday, with the prize on offer a meeting with Kilkenny in the decider. Looking back on that day in 1983 Murphy commented: ' It was a very windy day. We lost ten points to seven. We thought we had done well against the wind in the first half. Galway came back and hung in playing against the wind.
' It was very disappointing. We had beaten Kilkenny and Wexford to win the Leinster Championship and that was the highlight of our year. We had a good win against Wexford in the Leinster final.
' We had a big long break between the semi-final and final and Galway were fresher on the day.'
Back to the present, where it has been a very good season for Murphy's charges, the highlight so far being their dramatic win over Wexford in the provincial semi-final at Parnell Park when Glen Whelan fired over an injury-time point to set up a final clash with Kilkenny.
The Cats won that game well, but Dublin regrouped and came out on top against Antrim last month when Cormac Costello ( son of Dublin CEO John) grabbed two goals in the 3-13 to 1-11 win over a 14-man Antrim team in Crossmaglen.
Heading into the weekend, there are slight doubts over wing back Cillian Moffat, but Murphy believes his team can put it up to a battle-heartened Clare team.
' We are looking forward to it. The preparations have been going very well since the Antrim match, but Clare are a handy team. They have beaten Limerick, Tipperary and Waterford so they are well tested.
' They have a very good half back line, no more than ourselves. They have a good centre back and an excellent wing back, so we will be looking to be very competitive in that area of the field.
' They also had some handy corner forwards in the Munster final, but again it can change from day to day.
' But I would like to think we would be able to match them on their day if we play to the best of our ability.'
Murphy was down in Skerries on Saturday ( two of the panel in Dennis Forde and Aidan Keogh are both from the town and currently with Na Fianna) to put the squad through their paces and was reasonably happy with the way things went in Crossmaglen.
' We would have been happy that our team work had improved. We played more as a team than we played earlier on in the year.
' We probably could have pushed it a bit more with the extra man.'
- Rory KERR
