Early starts paying off, says Henry

August 20, 2010

Dublin's David Henry carries the ball around the tackle of Davy Harte during the All-Ireland SFC quarter-final at Croke Park - INPHO
David Henry believes Dublin's early morning training sessions in January have stood them in good stead.

However, the Dublin captain admitted that he thought the 6am starts were "madness" at the time.

"It seems an unnatural thing to be up that early in the morning," he said.

"I think the bad weather in early January put a stop to a few of them thank God! We did a couple of (sessions) and while we didn't do that many, they're still things that stick in your mind.

"When you've given that commitment and effort there's no way you'll just let that all go to waste. The fact that we've done that made us all say to each other 'what's the point in having done it all if we're going to throw the towel in now?'

"That was a help to us."

The Raheny clubman says a favourable All-Ireland qualifier draw helped Dublin to get back on track after their heavy Leinster SFC loss to Meath.

"Things can fall apart or can pull you together a bit tighter and that's what we did. The draw was good for us as well. That got a bit of momentum going. We would have felt we could beat Tipp. It was a good draw for us.

"Then Armagh we'd found hard to compete and play against over the last few years. To get over that added an extra bit of confidence to the team. The Louth game set us up nicely for Tyrone. With each game a little bit of confidence built within us."

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