Lyons's long wait over as Dublin look for final reward

FOOTBALL/All-Ireland Under-21 semi-final: From the shadows of a forgettable senior championship the Dublin under-21 footballers re-emerge this Sunday for their All-Ireland semi-final against Waterford to be played as a double bill with the hurling final in Thurles.

Yet for manager Tommy Lyons it seems nothing that happened in the heights of summer will have a bearing here.

Almost half of his under-21 team would have played some part in the ultimately disappointing run of the seniors, but Lyons is not making that an issue for Sunday. As two-time Leinster champions there is still some serious business to do in the under-21 championship.

"Right now we're just looking forward to playing in an All-Ireland semi-final," he says. "There's nothing more to it than that. Waterford are there totally on merit and we're certainly going to be treating them with the utmost respect."

Lyons has had plenty of time to switch modes from senior to under-21. Dublin collected the under-21 title on April 27th, comfortably beating Longford in the final, and it's been almost 11 weeks since the seniors fell to Armagh.

His first task then was to get the under-21s back in gear after such a long break.

"Well there are two ways of looking at a long gap like that," he says, "either as a problem, or as a strength.

"The lads went away and had a break, and then we brought them back together in the middle of July and they've been training very well since. More or less flat out.

"But we're lucky in Dublin as well in that the club championship has been going on and that's given most of them a lot of football. The problem of course is that we haven't had any competitive match together. That's the way it is and we'll just have to deal with it."

During that time Lyons has also been keeping an eye on the Munster championship, knowing that Dublin would face the eventual winners. And he has no doubts now that Waterford - who collected their first title by beating champions Kerry in the final - will provide stern opposition.

His opposing manager, Pat Nugent, has brought his team from the under-14 ranks and now fears no one.

"It makes me laugh when I hear all the time about these so-called weaker counties. They never seem to get their true credit. Obviously Waterford have been doing a lot of work down there and have put together a very good team. The same team only lost to Kerry by a point in the minor championship three years ago.

"So they've beaten Kerry, and Cork, and Clare this year, and are in the All-Ireland semi-final totally on merit.

"We've also watched the video of them now a few times and they certainly earned their victories against Cork and Kerry. In fact they were eight points down against Cork and came back to win the game. So obviously they have a lot of resilience as well."

Still there is no hiding the fact Dublin have the greater spread of talent and experience.

The likes of Alan Brogan and dual star Conal Keaney survive from last year, and others like Liam Óg Ó hEineachain, Paul Griffin and Bryan Cullen also featured in the summer's senior campaign.

Though Lyons last night made no changes from the side that defeated Longford in the Leinster final, he had been looking to extend his hand. "We've been looking at a lot of different guys since the Longford game. You had some players who were missing last April through injury or whatever, so we're always changing the panel around a bit.

"And we do have some new guys in there now. Derek Murray is one of those back chasing hard for a place, because he'd been struggling with injury back in April. So there will always be different sorts of breaks for players. We do have a few injury concerns. Graham Cullen and David O'Callaghan have been carrying knocks, and Barry Lyons too."

The winners of Sunday's game will play Tyrone in next month's All-Ireland final.

Waterford, meanwhile, have been forced to make one change to the side that defeated Kerry in the Munster final. Ruled out is full back Ger Hayes who suffered a serious knee injury in that victory over Kerry. He will be out of competitive action for the remainder of the year. Into his place comes Eamonn Walsh who impressed when introduced as Hayes's replacement in the Munster final.

Half back and team captain Niall Hennessy was an injury scare following a club game last weekend but he has been named in the starting line-up having recovered from a leg injury.

DUBLIN (Under-21 F v Waterford): P Copeland; N Kane, M Fitzpatrick, P Griffin; N Cooper, B Cullen, C Prenderville; P Brennan, D O'Mahoney; C Keaney, L Óg Ó hEineacháin, D Lally; A Brogan, G Cullen, J Noonan.

WATERFORD (Under-21 F): D Hickey; M Crotty, E Walsh, J O'Reilly; N Hennessy, E Rockett, J Hurney; S Dempsey, M Walsh; L Ó Lonain, M Power, T Whelan; B Costelloe, S Walsh, B Harty.