DUBLIN HURLING BOSS Ger Cunningham is working hard behind the scenes to make sure his tenure in the capital is a successful one.
The former All-Ireland-winning Cork goalkeeper is currently putting together a backroom team and attempting to get to know his new panel he admits.
Speaking to Stephen Doyle on 98FM this morning, Cunningham says the challenge is for him to build on what Anthony Daly and recently deceased county chief Andy Kettle achieved over the past six seasons or so.
“You can see there was a fantastic relationship there, you can see it, it’s in the book that Dalo brought out but when you talk to the players you can hear it from them as well, they’ve had a fantastic few years with Andy (Kettle) and Dalo, so I wouldn’t have that attachment. He brought them a huge amount of success and has brought Dublin hurling on a huge amount,” said Cunningham.
“Six years is a long time to be with guys also and maybe the time was right to move on a go a different route and that is the challenge for me to build on what Anthony has done and to build on the really good foundations that he has put in place.”
He’ll now attempt to familiarise himself with the players and build a solid working relationship from there.
“The biggest challenge for me is to get to know the players, as hurlers and what do they on the field but also to try to get to know them off the field as people, what makes them tick and what’s their background,” he says. “Playing inter-country hurling is really demanding and takes up an awful lot of time and I need to get to know them as people and that is the biggest challenge for me, getting to know them and getting to understand them, it’s been a fantastic six weeks (since I’ve taken over) really.”
And has the Barrs clubman been disowned by his county?
“I’ve had an awful lot of good wishes (from people in Cork) and I’m trying to drum up a situation so people (in Cork) will support Dublin as their second team and hopefully it’s going well.”
