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Hurling

Michael Carton lays bear the "tensions" behind the scenes within the Dublin hurling setup

In 2013, the Dublin hurlers made a bit of history. For the first time since 1961, they triumphed ...



Michael Carton lays bear the &...
Hurling

Michael Carton lays bear the "tensions" behind the scenes within the Dublin hurling setup

In 2013, the Dublin hurlers made a bit of history.

For the first time since 1961, they triumphed in the Leinster championship.

But just three years on from making a landmark breakthrough, just six starters from the 2013 victory under Anthony Daly are present in the panel named by current manager Ger Cunningham.

There have been murmurs of unrest in the camp over recent years and to shed light on that, Off The Ball were joined by hurler Mick Carton who left the panel in the summer of 2015 and Conor McKeon of The Herald.

Carton explained why he left and he cited the departure of coach Tommy Dunne, which he had previously discussed with Newstalk Sports broadcaster Oisin Langan in February 2015.

Tonight he said: "He was named on the panel with Ger that year. Then the first meeting we had as a panel, he wasn't there. So straight away I thought 'what's going on here?' We were never really given any clarity on why he left and we were promised another hurling coach of that calibre - which would be very hard to find anywhere in Ireland really - and it never happened.

"Straight away your asking questions. You're being promised things and they're not happening. So it throws doubt on you straight away." 

Ger Cunningham

There were other issues at play as well that Carton says he noticed.

"Within the management, you could see tension between the management team themselves and that's going to filter down the ranks. If players are seeing that and it wasn't hidden for the players, there's going to be tensions within the panel straight away and that's the last thing you want. If they're questioning each other, you're going to have doubts in your mind within the panel." 

For example the type of tension he saw included "not speaking-wise" and the management broke up eventually.

"We speak about Dublin hurling and all the players who have left over the years [but] six of the management team over the last two years have left. It speaks volumes I think," he said.

"It's unheard of in inter-county hurling to have two years and two different management teams as well was all these players." 

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