Cunningham to discuss Dublin future with county board chiefs

July 26, 2016

Dublin manager Ger Cunningham.
©INPHO/Ryan Byrne.

by Jackie Cahill

Dublin senior hurling team manager Ger Cunningham will sit down with county board chiefs to discuss his future in the coming weeks.

Cunningham, Sports Ambassador for Bord Gáis Energy, broke off from holidays to attend a promotional event ahead of tomorrow evening's (WEDS) Munster U21 hurling final between Waterford and Tipperary.

And he said: "It's the first time in a couple of weeks without hurling going through the brain and trying to think of other things that need to be done.

"It's been down time, I've gotten away from thinking of all the things you have to do. Once I'm back for the next couple of weeks, we'll sit down with Seán (Shanley) and John (Costello) on the county board and have a chat."

Cunningham has another year to run on his current deal with Dublin top brass and he added: "It's like anything you do, you'd like to review it and see how it went.

"We'll review our situation and take stock, have a chat with them and hopefully that will happen in the next few weeks."

Describing the 2016 season as something of a "mixed bag", Cunningham added: "We have our own expectations in relation to how far we wanted to go and what we wanted to do. In the League, we mixed the good with the bad.

"We kept our Division 1A status, played poorly in the quarter-final against Limerick, that was very disappointing, bounced back and played well against Wexford."

That Leinster quarter-final win set Dublin up for a crack against Kilkenny in the provincial semi-final, with Cunningham admitting that a "disappointing half an hour" cost the Sky Blues dearly.

They recovered to produce a spirited display against Cork in the All-Ireland qualifiers but lost narrowly after playing the second half without Chris Crummey, who was sent off for two bookable offences.

Cunningham added: "Plus, we've been handicapped by injuries quite a bit.

"We had five first choice players that weren't available to us for the Cork match but the other side of that is that it gave us the opportunity to introduce some younger players from the U21 panel.

"The team is changing, evolving, we've had a chance to look at what's required and needed.

"We've introduced nine U21 players to our senior panel and they've done very well in the U21 grade, winning Leinster this year, so it's a mixed bag all over if you look at it."


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