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David Herity's departure as Dublin manager, puck-out strategies and a big weekend for St Judes

Faye McCarthy and her club face Thomastown in the Leinster club camogie semi-final this weekend.

DUBLIN CAMOGIE GOALKEEPER Faye McCarthy has admitted “it was a surprise” to hear that recently departed manager David Herity was appointed as Kildare’s new hurling boss.

AIB GAA All-Ireland Club Championship Launch Naomh Jude and Dublin camogie goalkeeoer Faye McCarthy at the launch of the AIB Camogie and Club Championships. This is AIB’s 28th year sponsoring the AIB GAA Football, Hurling and their 6th year sponsoring the Camogie Club Championships. SPORTSFILE SPORTSFILE

The five-time All-Ireland winner spent two years in charge of Dublin, leading them to the All-Ireland semi-final in 2017 and the quarter-final this season.

Dublin were on the receiving end of a heavy 16-point beating by Galway in this year’s quarter-final, in what was Herity’s final game over the team. The 35-year-old was this week confirmed as Joe Quaid’s replacement in Kildare and McCarthy believes he’ll be a success in his new role. 

“It was a surprise to me, I hadn’t heard that,” she said. “I’d say he’ll do well but we’ll miss him, definitely. 

“He raised our own standards for ourselves first and with the fitness trainers, he really brought us on in terms of that. Yeah, a huge amount. I think we really made a name for ourselves in camogie over the last few years and he just brought us on so much.

From attitude to skills themselves, he just improved everyone’s game but in particular, he brought on what he saw in us and really progressed us skill wise.”

McCarthy worked closely with the former Kilkenny netminder and they’d often work on goalkeeping sessions for a half-hour before training sessions. Herity helped McCarthy, a Poc Fada champion, develop a puck-out strategy designed to utilise her distance and accuracy.

“I had a good deal there with the goalie trainer as a coach but it’s definitely a blow to us,” she explained.

“In the beginning he would say, ‘(hit it) as long as you can’ but that doesn’t work in senior camogie anymore. You can’t just hit it as far as you can and expect to get a score off it straight away so he really hit home about using it, not only just for length but tactically as well.”

David Herity New Kildare manager David Herity. Bryan Keane / INPHO Bryan Keane / INPHO / INPHO

She believes Dublin are not far away from mirroring their football counterparts and regularly competing for All-Irelands.

“I think as we progressed through the matches we got better and better but we just dropped it a little bit, nerves got to us a little bit but I think we did improve our own standards and that’s something that we stood to us.

Prior to the Galway, I thought we were improving game on game.  And then we dropped it a little bit, nerves probably got to us.

“It could be that we are showing the Cork, Kilkennys and Galways too much respect. Getting to a semi-final last year was all new to us but it showed that we had a reached a certain standard. We feel that we now belong at the business end of things.

“Going into the next year we hopefully a greater belief that we can do it against the top teams.

“In terms of skills and training, the desire is there to improve. Smart play needs to be developed but that can only be done at training and with a good strong manager who can implement that.”

Faye McCarthy Faye McCarthy warming up before the 2017 All-Ireland semi-final. Bryan Keane / INPHO Bryan Keane / INPHO / INPHO

On the club front, McCarthy’s side St Judes were crowned Dublin camogie champions over the weekend after an extra-time win over Na Fianna. They’ll face Kilkenny’s Thomastown in the Leinster semi-final on Sunday, a challenge she’s looking forward to. 

“It was huge. We had such a big crowd of support for Judes and it was insane. They had a homecoming for us, like the support they had was crazy. Because it is such a big achievement, not only for us but for the club to have the female team win Division 1 in the 40th year of our existence so it was huge.

I think a lot of us thought we shouldn’t have been in extra time to begin with but our fitness really stood to us on the day and I was so glad we got there in the end.

“We can’t wait for it. We’re on a high now and it’s not something any of us have ever done before so we’re really just looking forward to it. We really want to show off what we can do, what we’ve been working on for the past year and enjoy it.”

Judes have developed a state-of-the-art video analysis room in the clubhouse, a facility the camogie side regularly use. 

“We would use it every week after training. It’s open to anyone and it’s such a goof facility to have. It brings that element of professionalism to the game.

“Before Sunday, we watched the Na Fianna game in the league. Everybody said we are different team now. You could see the progression through the video analysis. That type of improvement really pushes a team on.

Such analysis also helps me with my puck outs. You can have a huge puck out but if you are not putting it where you should then there’s no point. It’s about the technology that we have to our benefit.”

It’s a big week for the club, with the men’s footballers taking on Kilmacud Crokes in the Dublin SFC final on Monday.

“We can’t for own game and then the footballers in their county final. There was a great homecoming for us last Sunday. We had support from the chairperson as well. The work that he and others are doing to bring on all parts of the club is insane.

“We are all confident. It would be an amazing achievement to do the double. I think we can do it.”

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