'Unity of group' vital component of Dublin says Graeme Mulcahy
High praise from five-time All-Ireland winner Graeme Mulcahy on his analysis of Dublin's performance to beat his own native Limerick in the All-Ireland quarter-finals.
Dublin shocked the hurling world and became the story of the summer with their remarkable 14-man victory over the all-conquering Limerick side, surpassing the incredibly dramatic Munster final from only a few weeks previously.
It puts Niall Ó Ceallacháin's side into the final four of this year's All-Ireland with Cork now standing in their way of a place in this year's decider.
The Dubs had to overcome adversity by losing captain Chris Crummey early in the game and then maintain their lead and see it through to eventually put an end to Limerick's season.
"They were just right on the day," said Mulcahy, speaking to RTE Sport ahead of this weekend's semi-finals. "Their hurling was sharp, they were unified and you could see that again in terms of the unity of the group."
And Mulcahy believes that this could be the start of something big in the capital for Dublin hurling as the Kilmallock man sees similarities with Limerick when they were starting to come through at the end of the last decade.
"There's probably similarities in terms of the success Na Fianna have had last year and what I suppose Niall Ó Ceallacháin has done in terms of embedding a lot of those guys, and you could see the energy that Na Fianna brought to the club final last year against Sars," said Mulcahy.
"It's always something that we would have valued in Limerick in terms of the last number of years, the unity of the group and how that was reflected on the field on match day and I think you could see that more so in the Dublin performance, which was obviously disappointing from a Limerick perspective, but hats off to Niall Ó Ceallacháin and his management team.
"I think they've done a super job, and I hope they could do that again the next day. I think he's a very intelligent manager and manages the day very well. "I think he'll have them primed again."
As for this weekend's opponents, Mulcahy believes that Cork will have really benefited from the extra preparation time that they secured by winning that Munster final, and he expects that they have been putting the time to good use.
"It allows you to take a couple of days' rest and ramp up slowly towards the semi-final, and do your homework on the potential opposition," said Mulcahy.
"The last number of years when we won Munster we always got a mini camp in where we'd spend a couple of days away maybe in the likes of Killarney, and you get a bit of work done on video analysis, a bit of on-the-field work, a bit of off-the-field work, a bit of psychology work and it just gives you that bit more time to spend quality time together.
"And obviously when you don't win Munster, you have a quicker turnaround, you don't have that opportunity, and I suppose you inevitably lack a bit of freshness then which I think showed [for Limerick]."
But Mulcahy was also able to point out the benefits of remaining active from a competitive sense and he feels that Tipperary's third-place finish in the Munster round-robin has handed them a similar opportunity to be primed for this weekend.
Tipp missed out on a place in the Munster decider, which has led to two subsequent games in the All-Ireland process, beating Laois and then Galway, to get to the semi-final stage, where they play Kilkenny on Sunday at Croke Park.
"In a way it's kind of a nice thing coming through third in Munster and having that chance to build slowly through that back door," said Mulcahy.
"And I think in terms of they've obviously been building under Liam (Cahill) for the last couple of years, they've brought through a lot of young talent and they continue to bring in new players nearly game on game which is amazing this late in the championship that there's guys making their first start and stuff like that.
"The talent of the likes of Jason Forde who can just whip a sideline over the bar from anywhere from 65 in, they're massive attributes to have in a team and could be the difference on the day, but then equally you have Kilkenny who, if they get their best team on the field and their best six forwards they have a scary top six."
Kilkenny have flown under the radar to a certain extent when taking the hype that surrounds the Munster Championship, as Derek Lyng's side plotted their way to the Leinster Championship and easing into the last four.
And Mulcahy has been impressed with Kilkenny's progress over the last few years as they have adapted to the manager's style, now reaping the rewards for persisting through the early difficult days of transition.
"They're almost guaranteed to get through Leinster for the last number of years which is psychologically a massive thing that they can start looking towards the later stages of the championship and build towards that," said Mulcahy.
"And I think the likes of Mossy Keoghan has been in unbelievable form this year, Billy Ryan has taken his game to a new level, and I think if they can get the likes of Eoin Cody back into the fray, I'm not sure how his injury is but I think they'll be going to be a very difficult team to beat as well and could go all the way.
"So yeah I think it is a benefit certainly not having maybe the helter-skelter of the Munster Championship and being able to build quietly in the background.
"In fairness, when he (Lyng) came in first, we played them in the league down in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, was it '22 or '23, and you could see they were trying to change their style of play. They hadn't fully embedded it in yet and we turned them over a lot in the day and it wasn't a good day out for them.
"But they've kept with the process I think something that we learned early in the days with Limerick that to stay with that process and eventually it'll click, and I think it's you've started to see it click with Kilkenny.
"If they were to make the breakthrough this year, I think they'd be a very hard team to beat over the next couple of years, and they could become one of those teams you that you talk about in terms of the greatest teams to play the game."
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