Dublin star David 'Dotsy' O'Callaghan has joined Ballyboden St. Enda's from St. Mark's to ensure himself of competitive club hurling.

Despite the success enjoyed by the Dublin hurlers in recent years, O'Callaghan claims the sport is living in soccer's shadow in Tallaght and believes the area would be better served if clubs such as St. Mark's and Thomas Davis joined forced for hurling purposes.

"Look, it was a very tough thing for me to do," 'Dotsy' told reporters at the launch of AIG's sponsorship of Dublin GAA for 2015.

"I've been at Mark's all my life, have had great times and memories there. It's just unfortunate the hurling has slipped back a lot there over the last couple of years, a gap has developed in underage teams, where we don't actually have a team.

"Mark's have also lost a lot of lads to other clubs, and unfortunately they're unlikely to return. So I would be calling for a combined Tallaght hurling team at this stage, even for underage as well. If you could have something along those lines you could try and raise the standards.

"It was never something I particularly wanted to do. There's no issue with Mark's. They've wished me well. That kind of helped make the move a bit easier for me."

"When I was starting off we had some great success. We won an intermediate football and hurling and then a senior 'B' in hurling the following year. From the hurling side, that whole era has literally vanished. There hasn't been an U21 team in a couple of years, and nothing down to U14 last year. That's a big gap."

The former dual player added: "Soccer is probably number one in Tallaght, from what I would see anyway. Shamrock Rovers has created a bit of a buzz there as well. They'd be doing a bit of work around the area. Kids are going to be attracted to that as well. That's what you're up against."

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