Dublin’s Johnny McCaffrey braced for Waterford assignment

Barring draws, just five games remain in the 2015 hurling championship. Three in Croke Park, two down in Thurles, starting with an unfamiliar Dublin and Waterford duel this Sunday from 2pm.

Waterford have been a revelation this season, winning the National League from nowhere and reaching the Munster final, both at the expense of Cork. They held pace with Tipperary nine days ago but that’s a standard to aspire towards for Derek McGrath’s youthful hurlers.

Dublin have been their usual, inconsistent selves; yet to catch fire and suffering a hiding at O’Connor Park in Tullamore on June 6th when Galway ruined the best-laid plans of new manager Ger Cunningham.

How does the Cork man differs from Clare’s swashbuckling Anthony Daly?

“I suppose he has a different way of approaching things on match day, training generally is quite similar,” explained Dublin midfielder Johnny McCaffrey. “You are doing slightly different things. Ger is maybe a bit more hands on in training; he is a very good coach. When he takes sessions they are very very good. Generally it’s been very good and the freshness is what we needed for the panel.”

Great pedigree

Different type of hurling brains, different philosophies?

“They are both passionate about the game and come from strong hurling backgrounds. Ger has a great pedigree with Cork and when he was selector he had success as well. Both come from great areas and Ger has brought that experience with him.”

Cunningham partially master-minded Cork’s journey to the 2013 All-Ireland final, picking off Dublin along the way, and you can see some of that short game in Dublin’s play.

“Little bits,” McCaffrey continued. “You can see him putting his own stamp on things. It’s going to take time as well with a new manager coming into a set-up that had the same manager for six years. It is always going to be different and everyone has to get used to that and I think the team is.”

Anyway, Liam Rushe is a defender again, Conal Keaney reverted to the forwards as the Laois revolt was put down without much fuss while Limerick were squeezed by the finest of margins in Semple Stadium.

“The win was the most important thing, the performance probably wasn’t where you want it to be, but the win was the key. The manner of the win as well, we hadn’t been playing particularly well and we got off to a slow start, it was really backs against the wall.

“People were questioning us before the game, that our character wasn’t there and we couldn’t win big games and that. So to come out on the other side of that was fantastic for the group.”

The people McCaffrey speaks about have not been questioning their character rather their collective concentration levels, their first touch under pressure too, but maybe that’s character.

“We’ve been happy enough with how we’ve been playing generally all year, bar obviously the replay against Galway, which was a disaster.

“But other than that we have been quite competitive in all the games we’ve played. We could have won the first day against Galway as well and that could have been a different story but I suppose it made us re-evaluate the whole thing and make sure we were copper-fastened and ready to go for the qualifiers and the All-Ireland series.”

Big challenge

So now a return trip to Semple on Sunday, the scene of last year’s trouncing by Tipperary.

“We have looked at Waterford,” McCaffrey concluded.

“I’ve seen a few of their games this year. The main thing that stands out about them is that they work very hard for each other. They are a very good hurling side but they work extremely hard and try get as many men on the ball, not just behind the ball but on the ball, and the right men on the ball as well. I think so far they have been a breath of fresh air and they have added massively to the championship. It’s a big challenge for us to go into Thurles and take them on.”