DUBLIN FORWARD DAVID O’Callaghan says that his county’s disappointing 2012 may have been the result of resting on their laurels.
The 2011 national league champions were sharply brought back to earth last year.
With many believing they were the game’s coming force they were relegated from Division 1a and found themselves out of the Championship at the hands of Clare in early July.
“It’s hard to put your finger on it exactly,” O’Callaghan said yesterday. “Maybe we got carried away a bit and started to think things might just happen without putting in the hard work.”
The forward is standing before the press on this occasion because his side have regained some success. The Dubs have secured passage back into Division 1A for next season and will face off with Tipperary in this weekend’s semi-final.
“This year, being down in 1B, and trying to win games, we were just trying to put the work in.
“Maybe mentally, lads were talking about getting to All-Ireland finals and going a step further than the year before. I don’t think we were shying away from any of the work on the field. But maybe psychologically, we were drifting away from what is required at this level because if you’re even just a couple of per cent off, any team will beat you.
“It was a bit of a disappointing year all round for myself. This year, I’m just enjoying my hurling again. There is a good vibe in the camp. Just looking forward and embracing the challenges.”
The last of those challenges came in the shape of Limerick. And O’Callaghan’s solitary score proved telling in the end as Dublin took the win by the most slender of margins.
Top level hurling
“I suppose the objective this year was to get promotion and bounce back straight away. We’re just delighted to have achieved that so far. For us, it’s nice to bounce straight back up as well. From Limerick’s point of view, they have been there for the last couple of years so they will be disappointed not to get out of it.
“I would probably be of the view that there should probably be a few extra teams exposed to top level hurling because that is where you improve; playing against the top teams.
“I don’t know the exact system or the correct system but for us, we were only focusing on our games and trying to achieve promotion.”
