Team News: The enduring crisis in Dublin hurling deepened yesterday when county board chairman John Bailey confirmed there would be a review of the current management before the end of the week.
Bailey wouldn't comment further on the chances of Humphrey Kelleher surviving as manager, but it is clear the county board believes his record of 12 successive defeats is now too serious to ignore.
"There will be a meeting within the next 72 hours," said Bailey. "We are talking the situation very seriously in light of recent events, but it wouldn't be fair of me to comment beyond that for the time being."
The eight-man management committee of the Dublin county board will most likely meet tomorrow evening for a formal assessment of the situation, but in reality that process has already begun and it now appears inevitable that Kelleher will be asked to vacate the position he has held for the past two years.
Bailey, however, was adamant that no one had yet been approached as a possible successor, nor had anyone come forward to offer fresh services.
Kelleher wasn't responding to requests for a comment yesterday. Despite the disappointing 12-point defeat to Laois in Sunday's championship quarter-final, Kelleher was defiantly determined to press on, saying that "there's nothing harder than what's going on here at the moment" but "that's the motivation behind me staying involved. I know what the potential is."
The reality is Dublin have now gone 12 competitive hurling games without a victory. The last time they managed to win was exactly a year ago when they got past Westmeath 2-14 to 0-11 in their opening game in the Leinster championship, but they then fell heavily to Offaly and finally Kilkenny in the qualifiers. They started off the year by losing the Walsh Cup meeting with Kilkenny, and then lost all eight of their league matches.
"You can't ignore 12 defeats," added Bailey. "Don't expect to beat Kilkenny, do expect to beat Antrim and Down and even Laois."
The county board appeared to have given Kelleher every bit of support, bringing in Jim Kilty and Will Heffernan to help with the physical preparations, while former Kilkenny captain Denis Byrne also gave some coaching lessons during the course of the league.
The defection of several players didn't help Kelleher's cause, with the two best-known dual players - Conal Keaney and David O'Callaghan - opting to concentrate on football. Last year's captain Kevin Flynn and Tomás McGrane were among the more experienced players to opt out over the course of his term, and the rumblings of discontent have been constant.
Kelleher in fact made two late changes and five positional switches just prior to the throw-in on Sunday, with the omission both of Stephen Perkins and Simon Daly particularly questionable.
Finding a replacement at this stage of the season will not be easy, with Dublin heading into the new qualifier rounds on June 18th, where they could be lining up against the likes of Limerick, Galway, and either Tipperary or Clare.
Elsewhere, the Tipperary County Board have confirmed that Ger O'Grady has been dropped off the county hurling panel ahead of their Munster championship semi-final with Clare on June 5th.
O'Grady was arrested outside a Limerick city nightclub in the early hours of last Sunday morning, just hours after scoring a goal in Tipperary's victory over Limerick. He was later released without charge and the management decided on a temporary omission from the panel as a form of a reprimand.
"The door is not being closed on Ger O'Grady for the season," said county press officer Ed Donnelly. "But he won't be involved in the preparations for the Clare match for obvious private and personal reasons."
Dublin under Kelleher
2005 Leinster Championship
Laois 4-14 Dublin 0-14
2005 National Hurling League
Series Two
Antrim 3-9 Dublin 1-11
Limerick 3-14 Dublin 3-8
Down 4-15 Dublin 4-9
Series One
Kilkenny 2-27 Dublin 0-11
Laois 2-13 Dublin 1-10
Waterford 2-24 Dublin 0-13
Clare 2-19 Dublin 0-14
Galway 3-19 Dublin 0-12
2004 Championship
Kilkenny 4-22 Dublin 0-8
Offaly 2-25 Dublin 1-13
Dublin 2-14 Westmeath 0-11
2004 National Hurling League
Series Two
Wexford 2-16 Dublin 1-12
Dublin 4-21 Offaly 2-6
Antrim 1-10 Dublin 1-10
Series One
Kilkenny 1-15 Dublin 0-9
Laois 3-14 Dublin 1-6
Waterford 6-17 Dublin 2-12
Clare 3-12 Dublin 2-12
Galway 1-14 Dublin 2-6
