Dublin hurlers triumph in Walsh Cup while footballers fall short in league opener
A strong local contingent played their part at Croke Park last night as the Dublin senior hurlers earned their first piece of silverware under manager Mattie Kenny with a comprehensive 2-29 to 0-19 victory over Wexford in the Walsh Cup final.
At the helm since 2019, Kenny will be pleased with the early season form of his troops, who will be aiming to take big strides forward in the forthcoming National Hurling League and Leinster Hurling Championship campaigns.
James Madden (Ballyboden St Enda’s), Chris Crummey (Lucan Sarsfields) and Danny Sutcliffe (St Jude’s) were all handed starts, and helped themselves to a point apiece in a dominant performance from the Sky Blues.
Owing to the provision of unlimited substitutes in what is essentially a pre-season competition, Kenny was able to fully examine his resources ahead of next Sunday’s NHL Division One opener against Waterford at Parnell Park. As a result, Lucan triumvirate John Bellew, Luke Walsh and Paul Crummey (brother of Chris) were all given opportunities to shine off the bench.
Crummey featured for the Metropolitans on a number of occasions in 2021 and joined his sibling in raising a white flag. Thomas Davis’ Davy Keogh also got a run-out and was one of 16 Dublin players to get their name on the scoresheet.
Na Fianna ace Donal Burke is seen as the go-to man in this Dublin team and contributed an impressive tally of 0-10 on the evening. Thanks to goals from Fergal Whitely and substitute Ronan Hayes (from virtually his first involvement of the game), they held an insurmountable 2-14 to 0-9 cushion at the break.
Mikie Dwyer – an early replacement for Kevin Foley – was the pick of the Wexford players on show, but he could do little to halt the progress of their rampant opponents.
Meanwhile, Templeogue Synge Street’s Lorcan O’Dell posted 1-1 but it wasn’t enough to prevent the Dublin senior footballers losing out to Armagh on a scoreline of 2-15 to 1-13 in a National Football League Division One opener at the same venue yesterday.
Making his league debut, O’Dell joined his club-mate Niall Scully in attack during the closing-quarter as Dessie Farrell’s men desperately sought to overturn a surprising 2-8 to 0-5 interval deficit.
Tom Lahiff (St Jude’s), Emmet O Conghaile (Lucan Sarsfields) and Ryan Basquel (Ballyboden St Enda’s) all started the game, while Ross McGarry (also Ballyboden) was introduced in the early stages. Although Rian O’Neill and Jason Duffy goals left his side with too much to do, O’Dell’s encouraging display as a substitute could see him gaining further chances to impress in the coming weeks.
