Hard work at centre of game-plan: Chris Crummey

Chris Crummey says "hard work" is the core principle of Dublin's hurlers as they continue their HL Division 1B campaign this Sunday against Laois in Parnell Park (2.0).

Mattie Kenny's men have secured a berth in the quarter-finals with one regulation game to go and after Sunday's clash against the O'Moore County they'll know who the face in the last-eight (on March 10).

In Chris's eyes the new Dublin hurling boss is working along similar lines and principles to his predecessor Pat Gilroy who stepped down after one year in charge owing to work commitments.

“To be honest there’s not that much difference at all. There’s some similarities between Pat and Mattie, down to the terms of their management setups, they’d be professional men, they’ve great management teams in place, I suppose their principles are very, very similar in how they want us to play, it literally is just hard work and that’s really what we’re trying to do with each game."

Last Sunday the Dubs showed great resilience to defeat Waterford in a high-scoring tussle in Parnell Park (1-26 to 4-15) when the work-rate, intensity and tackle count was much improved on their previous display when losing to Galway in Pearse Stadium, Salthill.

Reflecting on the loss to Galway the towering Lucan Sarsfields defender said: "I would just say as team of players and management we were all disappointed with our performance levels.

“I suppose if you look across the board, it’s very difficult to have a high level for every game, there’s always dips, but the one thing was how we reacted from that game last weekend, there was definitely huge learning we took from that Galway game that we think would beneficial in the long-term.

“We were disappointed ourselves because we didn’t perform.”

The victory over the Déise contrasted with the performance against the Tribesmen.

“I suppose we’ve come in and it’s gonna take time getting used to the plans and systems that are in place, but definitely it was the forwards who really led that performance at the weekend (against Waterford).

“I wouldn’t single anyone out, I thought as a unit they worked really well and everyone stood up to the plate and contributed to the scoreboard.

“Purely the work-rate of the forwards they made the backs jobs a lot easier, so I think that was a bit different from (the previous) Sunday (against Galway),” added Chris.