GAA:Pat Gilroy has made just one change to the team that defeated Tyrone in the All-Ireland quarter-final with Cian O'Sullivan replacing Barry Cahill in the half back line. The Dublin manager admitted there were a lot tough choices for him to make before he decided on his starting fifteen.
“It was a difficult team for us to pick. Over the last three weeks a lot of guys have been pushing hard for a place in the team but a lot of the guys that started the last day deserve another chance. Barry’s very unlucky because he’s been playing very well. It was a very marginal call to leave him out. There were seven or eight players who’ve been pushing hard,” said Gilroy.
Gilroy explained the decision to opt for O’Sullivan over Cahill.
“He (O’Sullivan) did well when he came on against Tyrone and he’s been playing really well. It took him a good while to get back from the hamstring injury and he’s only really getting back into the form we know he’s capable of.”
Gilroy maintains that Dublin’s victory over Tyrone saw them play to only 70 per cent of their potential and says that much improvement must be made if they to overcome Cork.
“You only have to look at our last three qualifiers. They’re riddled with mistakes. There’s massive area for improvement. We gave the ball away when we were not under an awful lot of pressure. There’s other areas where we were giving away frees. There are so many areas for us to improve. The players there are capable of improving. Whether it happens in this short space of time we’ll have to wait and see.”
The team has improved significantly since their defeat to Meath and Paul Casey, who has been named as a substitute this Sunday, believes that the transformation comes down to the mentality of the younger members of the squad
“The young fellas have really pushed on this year,” Casey said this afternoon. “It reminds me of when I first came onto the panel in 2002 when Tommy Lyons came in and five or six of us came into the starting team that year. There are a lot of similarities to that year but the young players definitely bring a freshness to the set-up. They’re all really good guys, they’re all grounded and very level-headed.”
Casey also insists that the fact that the majority of this Dublin team have not featured in recent semi-final defeats is another positive to be drawn on.
“There’ll be a lot of fellas starting that don’t have experience of those semi-finals. It’s a good thing that they’ve no baggage, as they say, going into it. They’ve just gone out and performed so far. Now, we have a good mixture of experience and young fellas.”
Captain David Henry understands that, given the competitive nature of the young squad, he is unlikely to finish the game on Sunday with Paul Flynn and Conal Keaney likely to be sprung from the bench sooner rather than later.
“I don’t expect to finish any game,” Henry admitted today. “I know that there are good fellas waiting to come in and do the business. There’s a culture within our panel, within our team that you know that there’s going to be 20 fellas playing over the course of a game. That’s the way the game is going, especially if you put the yards in out there.”
Henry also believes that the young Dublin side face their sternest test to date so far in the championship, claiming that Cork are deserving of their favourites’ tag.
He added: “If you had asked people who the best team in Ireland is at the start of the year, I think most people would have picked Cork. That mightn’t be the most popular thing to say in Kerry but consistently over the last two years Cork have been the best, they just fell at the line against Kerry for whatever reason”
Gilroy was similarly complimentary about Cork without ever ruling out the possibility of a Dublin victory.
“Logic would say that Cork should beat us but sports not like that,” he said. “It’s all on the day. Anything can happen. Cork have clinical forwards. We won’t be able to afford to make the same amount of mistakes as the last day. It’s a two horse race and on the day anything can happen.”
Graham Canty and Ciaran Sheehan have both been named in the Cork line-up for Sunday's game, though it remains doubtful if they will feature as manager Conor Counihan was cautiously optimistic and suggested there could still be changes.
Canty has been in a race to be fit after he tore a hamstring during the Rebels' quarter-final win over Roscommon, while Sheehan picked a knee injury in the same game.
Dublin(SFC v Cork): S Cluxton; M Fitzsimons, R O'Connell, P McMahon; K Nolan, G Brennan, C O'Sullivan; R McConnell, M D Macauley; N Corkery, A Brogan, B Cullen; D Henry, E O'Gara, B Brogan.
Cork(SFC v Dublin): A Quirke; R Carey, M Shields, J Miskella; N O'Leary, G Canty (captain), P Kissane; A O'Connor, A Walsh; P Kerrigan, P O'Neill, P Kelly; D Goulding, C Sheehan, D O'Connor.