DUBLIN FORWARD MARK Schutte says that not even an Allstar nomination can make up for Dublin’s disappointing hurling campaign.
Dublin were hammered by Galway in their Leinster quarter-final replay before crashing out of contention for the Liam MacCarthy cup altogether when losing to Waterford in the All-Ireland quarter-finals.
The Cuala man was the sole representative for the Blues when the 45-man nomination list was released earlier this month but he still says there are a lot of things he needs to work on as a player.
“(It didn’t take the edge off) to be honest. I suppose looking at it personally there was probably a lot of things I can work on and the team can work on.
“I suppose what the team said is we will all work on our own games and hopefully we can probably have a better year next year for it. I know I probably didn’t have good games against Limerick and at times against Waterford.
“I was disappointed so I suppose that’s the things we are looking for, them small things that we are going to try to work on in 2016.”
The planning for 2016 starts next month when manager Ger Cunningham puts a new backroom team in place following the departures of Shay Boland, Gearoid Ó Riain and Ed Coughlan.
Boland’s decision in particular came as a surprise to Schutte.
“It was a surprise. The guys that left made a huge contribution to the squad.
“With Shay he helped us a lot through minor and U21s, a lot of us had him as coach.
“He probably just went on his own accord. We didn’t feel there was anything wrong with it. Gearoid as well, work and family commitments. They have just gone their separate ways and whoever comes on board next year I hope contributes hugely to the team.
“Ger is a very shrewd man. He has been working hard since we finished at the end of July to sort his backroom team.
“He doesn’t want to jump into anything too soon I’d say. He probably has a good idea himself who he’s going to take on board. He probably won’t introduce it to the players until the first meeting in November.”
Mark Schutte was speaking at the announcement of a partnership between Movember, the GAA and the GPA.
