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Hurling

Dublin camogie team channeling their inner Munster

Dublin camogie manager Frank Browne likened his team's performance in their opening All-Ireland S...



Dublin camogie team channeling...
Hurling

Dublin camogie team channeling their inner Munster

Dublin camogie manager Frank Browne likened his team's performance in their opening All-Ireland Senior Championship win to the 'Munster rugby team in their pomp'.

The Girls in Blue only managed to shake off a tenacious Meath side in the closing stages of the 1-16 to 0-12 Group 2 win last Saturday.

Browne, who only took the reins at the end of last year after the departure of David Herity, was delighted with how the players closed out the game, outscoring the Royals by four points to nothing in the last 10 minutes.

"Meath got a little bit of a purple patch but every team, no matter what the level, sure we see that in soccer, rugby, hurling, football, tiddly-winks, every team gets a little purple patch of ten minutes," Browne told Off The Ball.

"It’s how you manage it.

"If you look back to the Munster rugby team, when they were in their pomp, when they had their ten minutes of purple they went hell for leather.

"When the other team had it, they slowed the game down and they rucked and they mauled. It’s how you manage the game.

"Meath got a couple of points in a row but we stuck to our plan."

Browne was especially pleased with how his team held their nerve having thrown five players in for their first taste of Championship action.

"We didn’t panic, which was brilliant because we had five debutants on the pitch as well because we’re trying to get that little bit of a mix and that bit of rebuilding.

"But the girls stuck to the plan, kept the scoreboard ticking over and brought us through the other side then."

While there were many positives to take from the opening victory, Browne has highlighted the concession of frees for simple things like bad hand passing, picking the ball off the ground and over-carrying as something to be worked on.

Dublin camogie team gearing up for Waterford test

This Saturday Dublin face a Waterford team who were leading Tipperary 1-15 to 0-14 with 11 minutes to go last Saturday before the match was abandoned.

That was after Tipp forward Nicole Walsh, who is recovering well now, was badly injured and Browne praised Cork referee Andrew Larkin for putting player welfare first.

"I wasn't one bit surprised at all [by Waterford's lead]," said Browne who believes the other Group 2 teams, aside from All-Ireland champions Cork, are all very evenly matched.

"All our games now are dog-fights. [I know] it's a cliche, we're only looking at the next game but we are. Because the teams are close and because the games are coming so fast."

Browne is wary of the threat posed by the Deise's forward line and it is something that the Dublin coaching staff have looked at closely ahead of the game in Walsh Park.

"They have a couple of really good forwards there that we need to watch and we need to do our match-ups on them. But the other thing is, what we'll be looking for is making sure the quality of ball is not good.

"We see it in the hurling at the moment with Aaron Gillane, if you let good quality ball get into Aaron Gillane, even if you have two men on him, he's going to go through them and he's going to get scores for you.

"We saw it with Davy [Fitzgerald - Wexford hurling manager] with TJ Reid the Wexford - Kilkenny match at the weekend where he did his best to snuff out TJ Reid, therefore the quality of ball going into the forwards wasn't as good as it normally is.

"So that's what we'll be looking at as well, trying to make sure we're working hard around the middle of the pitch so the quality ball is not going into the forwards."

The match between Waterford and Dublin at Walsh Park (4 pm throw-in) is being broadcast live on the Camogie Association's official Facebook page this Saturday with the coverage getting underway at 3:45 pm.

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Camogie Association Dublin Camogie Frank Browne