CONAL KEANEY DOESN’T want to put any pressure on it.
That goes for both his return to action and Dublin’s quest for championship silverware.
Indeed one feeds into the other as he, Stephen Hiney and Tomas Brady continue their comebacks from cruciate knee injuries. Keaney will play no part in the league, of course, but there is hope that he will be ready for another assault on Leinster.
“I’d like to think I’ll play some part in the championship,” says Keaney. “I don’t know how realistic it is. I still have to up the intensity in training and see how the knee reacts.
“Just from talking to people who have done it in the past, you need to be very careful. It’s just a gradual process. The rule of thumb is: when you think you’re ready, add on another month. I don’t know if I can afford to do that or not. I’ll see how the knee reacts in the next couple of weeks.
“We’re all just eager to get back and get out as much as we can without the physios seeing us, but they just keep pulling in the reins all the time.”
As the 2011 season passed by, more and more Dublin players succumbed to injury. Having played through a tough league campaign this year with such a young side, the Ballyboden St Enda’s man is looking forward to having all the pieces in place for the summertime.
“It’s been a tough couple of months but I think we’re coming out the right side of it,” he says. “Last season we had everyone coming through the league and then the injuries started happening. We didn’t have everyone for the Tipperary game which was our biggest game of the year.
“If we can just have the opposite this year: just get through the league and manage to stay up and get everyone back for the business end of the season. That’s the plan.”
A most entertaining and cut-throat league, Dublin have introduced new faces such as Danny Sutcliffe and Shane Stapleton as they try to harden up their squad.
“The league being so short was always going to be hard to blood players. But I think we were forced to blood players and I think everyone of them stood up to be counted. It’s going to be hard to move those lads and it’s going to be hard for Anthony (Daly) to pick a squad, never mind a team, when everyone gets back.”
Last Saturday evening’s draw with Tipperary ended a run of three consecutive defeats but, in a game that Dublin were in top of for long spells, it took a 74th-minute Liam Rushe goal just to gain parity.
“Realistically, it would have been very tough to take three (close) defeats in a row if it did happen like that” Keaney explains. “It was a relief to get something out of it and maybe it was a mental block we were struggling with for a while. The last couple of minutes of a game, we weren’t sure if we could get over that line. Albeit we haven’t got over it but at least we know what to do. (There’s a ) huge amount of young lads there and it’s great to give them confidence going into the championship.”
Confidence is something that has been lacking from placed balls for Dublin this year. Paul Ryan showed in 2011 what an excellent marksman he is but he missed crucial late chances to put Dublin four ahead of Cork before eventually missing a late equaliser.
After Ryan went off injured against Kilkennny, Alan McCrabbe could have put Dublin four ahead of Kilkenny late on, while McCrabbe and Simon Lambert converted just one of six frees in the first half against Tipp. In many ways, Dublin could be in line for a league semi-final if they’d taken their free shots at the posts.
“It’s probably something that we need to look at,” says Keaney. “Paul is our free-taker and he’s an excellent free-taker. He showed last year how good is he. I think our next free-taker would be Alan McCrabbe and he was struggling with injury the last number of months.
“He was just forced into it when Paul went off against Kilkenny and in Croke Park against Tipperary. I don’t think we have any issues.”
When reminded of the wealth of free-taking options in Kilkenny, Tipperary and even Cork, Keaney revised his opinion somewhat. ”Maybe it’s something we need to look at, I don’t know. I don’t think it will be an issue later on this season when we’re all back hurling, and addressing them problems. Maybe it was something we overlooked. We though that Paul would have been playing and we didn’t have a back-up plan. But we learn as we go.”
As this team does. Having won the league, is championship silverware the next step? ”I don’t think we’re putting pressure on ourselves. Last year we kind of came out of nowhere and won the league and did well in the championship. Previous to that, we were probably struggling, Dublin hurling.
“We’re not putting any pressure on ourselves to say we have to do anything. We’re just look to get everyone back and train hard and see where that takes us. There’s so many young lads coming through that even if it doesn’t happen in the next couple of years, I’m sure it will happen eventually.”
As ever, Keaney won’t be putting pressure on it.
Conal Keaney was speaking at the launch of Centra’s ‘Brighten Up Your Day’ Community Event