2010 HURLING CAMPAIGN:THE GAA'S reassertion that all hurlers must now wear their helmets on match days without fail – even when warming up, parading, or pausing to take a free – would appear to be the final blow to player identification, or at least to those hurlers who like to be recognised on the field by more than just the number on their back. Alan McCrabbe could be forgiven if he was one of them.

Last October, McCrabbe was honoured as Dublin’s first hurling All Star since Bryan McMahon, way back in 1990. It was just reward for a player who helped Dublin make such telling progression throughout 2009, and yet given the fact he was already a committed helmet wearer, McCrabbe remains largely unrecognised in the county, on or off the field.

Dublin begin their 2010 hurling campaign on Saturday with a low-key Walsh Cup tie against NUIG, in Portmarnock, and it will be business as usual when McCrabbe takes the field. He’s never been easily recognised before, and even with All Star credentials, it suits him fine to continue that way – just another hurler behind a helmet.

“I suppose in Dublin they’ll always recognise footballers first, because they don’t wear helmets,” he says. “But it doesn’t really bother me. It’s more hurling talk I’m interested in, not going out on the streets getting noticed by people.

“Although maybe it means I’ll be a marked man, that players won’t be giving me as much space as last year, but it’s up to myself to work my own space and own scoring and push on.”

The GAA clarified the issue after Sunday’s Kehoe Cup game between Wicklow and Roscommon; Wicklow midfielder Jonathan O’Neill briefly discarded his helmet while taking a free – only for the GAA to insist this is no longer permitted. It has been suggested that hurlers now carry names on their jerseys, as well as numbers, to make up for the lack of recognition now that they are all helmet-bound: “It doesn’t bother me,” says McCrabbe. “Names on the back of jersey won’t make a difference.”

What does concern McCrabbe is the need to build on last year, which naturally won’t be easy: “It was a good year, but just means there’ll be even more expected of me this year.

“I put a lot of pressure on myself anyway going into last year, and want to do that again, to get back-to-back All Stars.

“Obviously, with Dublin, we want to push it on again this year. I suppose Tipp and Kilkenny are there on the top at the moment. We wouldn’t be too far off, but would want to be catching up, and that’s why we’ll be targeting the league this year, pushing up beside them.”

Among Dublin’s opponents on Saturday with NUIG will be Clare’s under-21 All-Ireland winner John Conlon, who is facing into a hectic few months between club, county and college – particularly given he’s under-21 again for 2010. Not surprisingly, the second year arts student at NUIG wouldn’t have it any other way.

“In the last few years we had no competition to warm up in,” says Conlon, “and you are looking for challenges and there’s only club teams like Newtownshandrum and Portumna and sometimes they are not playing with full teams because lads are committed to colleges so you are looking for games. Dublin is going to be a good match so we’ll see how good we are then, and that will test us before the Fitzgibbon Cup.

“We were also back with Clare in the first week in January and things seem to be going very well with that. Any time we are training with the college he (new county manager Ger “Sparrow” O’Loughlin) doesn’t expect us to train with the county which is good. Once he knows we are training and committed to the set-up, that’s the main thing.”