Shane Barrett
By John Harrington
The next week is easily the biggest so far of Shane Barrett’s nascent hurling career.
The 20-year-old Dubliner will play for the county senior team in Saturday’s make or break All-Ireland Qualifier against Cork, and then anchor the Dublin U-21 team’s defence in next Wednesday’s Bord Gáis Energy Leinster Final against Offaly.
Saturday’s showdown with the Rebels is all he’s thinking about now though, because everyone in the Dublin camp is fired up to make amends for their second-half collapse against Kilkenny in the Leinster SHC Semi-Final.
"Yeah, it’s a massive week,” agreed Barrett. “Two huge games coming up. We knew the performance against Kilkenny in the second half wasn't good enough.
"So we're trying to bring massive intensity into the Cork game now and try and get the win. We sat down. We had a meeting. We discussed everything. But we didn't dwell on what we did wrong or what we did right. It's a different game against Cork.
"So look, we're trying to build towards Cork. That game is in the past. We're focusing on what's in the dressing-room. In the panel. Spirits are high. We're looking forward to going down there. We can't complain.”
Dublin performed quite well against the Cats in the first-half of that Leinster Semi-Final. They trailed by just a point at half-time, but were steam-rolled in the second-half as Kilkenny ran out 12-point winners.
"It was disappointing, from our point of view, to let them come back by so much,” said Barrett. “Give Kilkenny five per cent more and they're going to crush you. For some reason, we dropped off. And the punished us for it. For the younger lads, it was the first time going down like that. But we learned a massive amount. That experience will last a long time. No one wants to feel that sort of hurt again. So look, we'll take that experience with us and push on.”
Dublin hammered Cork by 4-21 to 2-17 in the League this year, but Barrett doesn’t think that result has much relevance as far as Saturday’s match is concerned.
“In the League game Cork weren't up to where they usually are,” he said. “So we're just focusing on what they're going to bring as of recently and we're focusing on our game and our players and we're all looking forward to Saturday.
"Going down to Páirc Uí Rinn, a home crowd (for Cork). There's probably going to be 16,000 Cork people there. Look, we know the forwards they have, we know the names they have. We really have to close down on them, we can't give them any space or they'll punish you. It's not going to be easy. But we're looking forward to the challenge."
Shane Barrett was in Dublin yesterday to look ahead to next Wednesday's Bord Gáis Energy GAA Hurling U-21 Leinster final. The game takes place on Wednesday, July 6th at O’Connor Park in Tullamore with a 7.30 throw-in time. The game will be broadcast live on TG4 from 7.00pm.
