It’s Been Good To See Them Really Put Their Hands Up Over The Last Few Weeks – Dublin Captain Sinead Aherne
Ahead of today’s opening TG4 All Ireland series group game against Waterford we spoke to Dublin Captain Sinead Aherne at the official launch in Croke Park earlier in the week.
Sinead unfortunately picked up an injury early in the Leinster Final against Westmeath and was taken off, how is the injury and what was it like for the Dublin Captain to watch the action unfurl from the sideline.
”Ye disappointing to pick up a knock I suppose but hey these things happen and it’s not too bad and I’ll be back in a couple of weeks Sinead stated.
”So the girls had to stick at it, it was a tough close game with Westmeath as it always is, they were really competitive in that game and they were in our faces and look we just had to remain patient and the girls managed to pull away on the scoreboard in the end and it was most important to just get the win.”
The Dublin Captain is expecting another tight game today against Waterford who have been motoring well themselves this year and Sinead said having watched them against Cork, her team will have to be patient in the game.
“No more like the last day we will have to be patient, they were very close with Cork in the first half and they (Cork) pulled away from them in the second half, we know they have players that can hurt us and quality players and they are very well set up, so it’s just I suppose trying to take some of that momentum from training the last couple of weeks and put a few pieces together and hopefully be able to just stay patient and find some gaps.”
Besides Sinead having to go off injured in the Leinster final there were a number of other players missing on the day due to injury and Dublin had to dig into their squad with some young players impressing on the day and the Dublin Captain expressed the importance of the squad in terms of these players pushing everyone on and challenging for a place in the team.
“There’s players and particularly when you go through patches where I suppose the games aren’t as plentiful you have to rely on your squad to lift the intensity to that match level so that when you are coming out you can very quickly get up to the pace of it, so I think the importance of the squad for us in terms of getting a push from the girls that are trying to get into the fifteen, trying to get into the twenty on the day and staying in the squad and being competitive is really important, so it’s been good to see them really put their hands up over the last few weeks.”
There was a big gap from the end of the league to the Leinster final, the games now come thick and fast, Sinead was asked if it’s difficult for players change and prepare from a period of inactivity to the hustle and bustle of a busy championship schedule.
“Ye it‘s difficult, said Aherne; I suppose we put a lot of trust in management in terms of how they prepare us, obviously they have to manage that in terms of players go back to their clubs for few weeks after the league and that’s good I suppose for match practice, but it’s a different step-up when you come back to county and we weren’t probably at the pitch that we needed to be at for Westmeath.
“But I think fairly quickly we will be hoping to come back up to that and it’s just nearly trying to get the first day nerves out of the way and build momentum and when you do have games coming very fast at you, you tend to hone the match sharpness and your precision a lot more so you have to think on your feet more quickly maybe, so I think we are happy where we are at and just sort of trust that hopefully we have got the balance right between training and match prep.”
The full interview with Dublin Captain Sinead Aherne can be viewed in the video above.
