DUBLIN U-21 MANAGER Dessie Farrell says he hopes the ‘less is more philosophy’ is adopted in the coming weeks to save his senior players from fatigue.
Farrell guided Dublin to a successful Eirgrid Leinster U-21 title defence on Thursday evening at Kildare’s expense with senior duo Cormac Costello and Conor McHugh hitting 2-7 between them.
In all, eight senior panellists are involved in Farrell’s set-up though their activity will have to be carefully planned in the coming weeks.
Costello and fellow senior David Byrne played in the Allianz league last weekend but could be spared by senior boss Jim Gavin in the coming weeks.
The U-21s play the Munster champions in the All-Ireland semi-final on April 18 while the final takes place on May 2.
As for the seniors, they hope to be involved in the league semi-finals on April 11/12 and a final on April 26.
“I’ll talk to Jim Gavin and see how the seniors are fixed and what their needs might be,” said Farrell. “At this stage, rest and recovery is important so the less is more philosophy will probably work, however we manage that. If it’s a combination of senior (and U-21), so be it.
“We’ll talk to Jim. Jim has been good to us on that front. Hopefully we’ll be able to manage it properly over the coming weeks.”
Costello made a timely return from the hamstring lay-off that kept him out of their previous wins over Longford and Laois. He scored 2-2 against Kildare in Thursday’s final and was part of a lethal full-forward line that contributed 3-7 in total.
“We were missing Killian O’Gara who had been phenomenal for us in the two games and had come from nowhere really,” said Farrell.
“Killian had been a brilliant addition to the attack in the last few weeks and months. Obviously he was ruled out through injury so it was really timely to have Cormac back in and replacing him. And in fairness to him he delivered two important goals.”
Kildare’s agony was compounded by the hamstring injury that forced senior star Niall Kelly out of the game late on. He is a doubt now for Sunday’s crucial Allianz league Division 2 tie with Galway.
