Dublin hurler Fergal Whitely poses for a portrait at Croke Park after being appointed GAA’s Ambasadóir na Gaeilge for 2025. Photo by Ben McShane/Sportsfile
By John Harrington
Dublin forward, Fergal Whitely, says Sunday’s crunch Allianz Hurling League Division 1B clash with Waterford will feel like a championship match because of the high stakes.
Both teams have lost a match in the division, Dublin last time out against Offaly and Waterford in their first game against Carlow, and another defeat for either would likely end their promotion hopes.
“I think the Waterford game is nearly a Championship game, the fact that we've both lost a game,” said Whitely yesterday when he was announced as the GAA’s Irish Language Ambassador for 2025.
“We just want to win as many games as possible and if that means promotion, that's great.
“But you can't look past any team, we have Waterford this weekend and then two more games against Carlow and Laois which will be really tough as well. If we can hopefully get a win this weekend we'll take it from there.
“The management kind of laid out at the start of the league that the aim was to try to win every game in the league and then also to give as many lads as possible a chance.
“Last weekend unfortunately we didn't win which wasn't part of our aims, but it means this weekend is a little more important because I know Waterford have lost a game as well.
“We did our analysis of the game on Tuesday and we saw that Waterford had a great win against Antrim last weekend.
“We'd probably expect that they might have another couple of lads back in this weekend. We're really looking forward to going down there with the challenge.”
Fergal Whitely of Dublin during the Allianz Hurling League Division 1B match between Dublin and Offaly at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Daire Brennan/Sportsfile.
Whitely has been a member of the Dublin panel since 2017 and believes the depth of talent in their ranks is now better than it’s ever been.
“This is probably the strongest panel I've been involved with," he says. "In my first year there were a lot of young lads brought in and there was probably a bit of a gap between the experienced lads and the younger lads. It's probably a more balanced panel now, in terms of the ages.
“It's great to have all the Na Fianna lads back as well after their success. There's probably a panel there that have been working together for the past couple of months so with those in there it's freshened everybody up and kept everyone on their toes.
“There's great competition within the panel and heading towards the Championship in a few weeks we're in a good place. We've no real long-term injuries which is good as well.
“As I mentioned with Na Fianna's success, that's given us a good boost as well. Yeah, I think we're in a good place.”
When you consider standard of the Dublin club hurling championship last year, the positive vibes from Na Fianna’s All-Ireland triumph, and steadily increasing depth of talent in the Dublin panel, it’s easy to believe they could have a big year ahead of them.
“Yeah, that's obviously the ultimate goal, to win trophies,” says Whitely. “We got to the Leinster final here last year and didn't perform.
“That's still disappointing for a lot of the players. That's our aim, to get back there this year and hopefully go one better. I think we'd be hopeful...and I know we were talking there about the younger lads coming in, they've really added to the group.
“Since the start of the league we have a lot of lads there pushing. For any successful team, that's exactly what you need so it's up to us to go and do it now.”
