EXCLUSIVE
Jonny Stapleton
Dublin’s reward for successfully navigating an extremely dramatic final day of group games last weekend was an All-Ireland senior camogie championship quarter-final clash with Kilkenny.
Despite not securing direct passage to the semi-finals the Leinster Champions are unbeaten this season and by O’Sullivan’s own admission are by some distance the ‘form’ side in the country.
Add to the mix they beat Dublin by nigh on five goals in a Leinster final as recent as May and taming the Cats looks a daunting task.
However, O’Sullivan (left) is adamant it’s not the mission impossible some people may build it up to be and he claims his team go into the weekend confident they can win the RTE 2 broadcast clash.
“They are unbeaten this year, they missed out on a semi-final place and a league final spot on scoring difference and they won the Leinster Championship. They are the form team in the country no question about that,” O’Sullivan told the Dublin Gazette.
That form makes it a formidable task but Dublin are not just up for the challenge they are confident if they produce a good performance this weekend they can progress to the final four.
“We know them well. A lot of players have grown up playing against them and playing with them at college and we’ve played them in a few challenge matches this year as well as the Leinster final,” he continues making a familiarity breeds confidence argument.
“We feel we are in a really good position going into this game. We have been very consistent in our performances throughout the Championships and we’ve beat top sides this year. We will look to produce another performance.”
O’Sullivan is aware Kilkenny will be deemed favourites going into the Semple Stadium hosted knockout game and assumes the 5-11 to 0-12 Leinster final win will feed into that narrative.
However, the Limerick man believes that isn’t a game people should read too much into and assures the Dublin players and management team know victory is not beyond their grasp.
“They put a score on us in the Leinster final, but we hadn’t really prepared for that final. We used the Leinster Championship as preparation for the Championship. Everyone outside the group might think it’s a done deal but we are confident. There is confidence within the group and we know what we are capable of.”
A brilliant second half display in the final round of group games against Wexford last weekend saw Dublin progress to the knockout stages in the most thrilling fashion.
With 15 minutes to go in that game Dublin’s Championship was over, but they turned things around to march on via score difference at Tipperary’s expense.
O’Sullivan knows such a display created the kind of excitement that can feed into the Kilkenny clash but he takes more pleasure in the performance leaving the furor to fans and the neutral.
“Anytime a group goes down to the last day and the last 15 minutes like that it is exciting but I’m most happy with the performance. You can’t go to Wexford expecting to put a score on a team that good. You can only target a win so we were focused on performing. It was more exciting for those watching on or watching on the stream. We come away more satisfied with the performance than we do excited.”
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