Sutcliffe set to skipper Dubs
ST JUDE’S man Danny Sutcliffe has been appointed captain of the Dublin Senior Hurling team for 2020.
Succeeding Lucan’s Chris Crummey as skipper, Sutcliffe returned to inter-county action in the Dubs’ recent Walsh Cup semi-final defeat at the hands of Galway.
Danny Sutcliffe
A part of the Dublin team that enjoyed Leinster Championship success back in 2013, the 27-year-old is poised to lead the Blues out against Kilkenny in their Division One opener in Nowlan Park on Sunday.
The last time that Dublin met Kilkenny in the Allianz National Hurling League was when the Cats confirmed the Blues’ relegation from Division 1A in the final game of the 2017 league.
At the time Ger Cunningham’s tenure with the hurlers was coming to the end and Mattie Kenny was making all of the right moves with Cuala in the club championship.
Names were thrown around like Anthony Daly, DJ Carey and Anthony Cunningham to take over the position, but the county board stunned supporters when Pat Gilroy, the man who brought Sam Maguire back to the capital with the footballers in 2011, was named as the hurling boss.
The state of Dublin hurling was a far cry from the team that claimed the Leinster Championship just four years previous, especially following Gilroy’s departure after just a year.
But the structures of hurling in the country have changed. The new-look league has two divisions of equal strength competing in Division One Group ‘A’ and Group ‘B’ and Dublin are on the rise.
Mattie Kenny is coming off the back of a relatively successful first season with the Boys-in-Blue.
Sutcliffe and Lucan Sarsfields’ Chris Crummey have been staple players for the Dubs while the likes of Ballyboden St Enda’s Luke Corcoran and James Madden, Thomas Davis’ Davy Keogh and Round Towers’ Alex O’Neill will be looking to contend for starting positions after their Walsh Cup performances.
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