JJ DELANEY IS a man who made the most of Kilkenny’s golden era under Brian Cody.
Before his retirement last year, he won a total of nine All-Ireland medals, seven All-Stars and in 2003, he won the clean sweep of all three Hurler of the Year awards.
Times are changing however, as year by year, other counties are coming to the forefront and challenging the Cats.
Speaking at the Sky Sports launch of their 2016 GAA coverage last week, Delaney spoke highly of Dublin and told of how he believes they will be a force to reckon with over the coming years.
“These younger players are coming through, they’re coming through from minor and U21 and they have no fear of a Kilkenny jersey.
“We saw last week the Dublin minors beat the Kilkenny minors. They have no fear of playing Kilkenny. They can bring that kind of mentality back into the senior panel.
When a young player comes in and doesn’t show any weakness or any sign of being scared of the opposition, it just grows within the group itself. It gives the older players a bit of incentive that ‘Jesus these young lads aren’t scared, why should we be?’
“If they can develop that, Dublin will be a serious, serious team. I can see Dublin being competitive now for Leinsters and All-Irelands over the next four or five years, definitely.”
After comfortably beating Wexford in Croke Park on Saturday night, Ger Cunningham’s side now progress to the Leinster semi-final where they face Delaney’s old flame.
The current Sky Sports pundit stresses the importance of an opening-round win for the Cats.
“They can’t afford to look past their first game having been caught before and your whole year being turned upside down. It’s so vitally important to focus on the first game.
The league hurling is over. The shadow boxing is over. Now it’s time for championship hurling, it’s time for people to step up to the mark.
When asked about defeats, Delaney says that they’re not taken lightly.
“It’s a huge thing (in Kilkenny). Even from my career, I’d remember every bit of the defeat more than the wins. They hurt a lot more. There’s always if, ands or buts.”
Will it be the same old story at the end of the year with Kilkenny winning Liam McCarthy? Delaney hopes that’s the case but doesn’t dismiss alternative outcomes.
“Look I think Kilkenny have to avoid injury to key players this year as well, with a couple of retirements and a couple of lads going off the panel – they have to keep their first 15 free of injury”
It’s very hard to look past a Kilkenny and Galway Leinster final again. You’ve seen from Galway over the years, you don’t know what sort of Galway team will turn up.
“They can turn up on any given day and give Kilkenny one hell of a game, as they did in the Leinster final a few years ago where they hammered Kilkenny. That will always be in the back of a Kilkenny player’s mind going into a Leinster final if they get there to play Galway.
“I see Galway being their main competitors (for Leinster) and then Dublin after that.”
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