James McCarthy doesn't see there being much chance of Pat Gilroy poaching him from the Dublin footballers to play for the capital's hurlers. "I'd be a hacker. There wouldn't be much stickwork," says the Ballymun man.
Gilroy was this week appointed as manager of the Dublin hurlers. McCarthy sees him as being a good appointment. He's a good man to judge too, the 27-year-old won the first of his five football All-Irelands under Gilroy in 2011.
He'll get a very united bunch, get everyone together, and maybe the guys who are not there at the moment I reckon will come back in. He makes you want to play. He gets teams very driven and wanting to play for Dublin.
From the start, he organised and pooled everything really well. Everyone knew what was going on and that's half the battle when you're controlling 33 - 35 guys and 10 - 15 in the backroom team. You need to be able to know everyone's role and job and he was really good at doing that.
Though Gilroy is inexperienced when it comes to hurling management, McCarthy does not believe it will be a problem for the St. Vincent's man.
I think that can jump across to any sport be it hurling or football. Football and hurling are quite similar anyway, very much the same rules in the majority of them so he should be able to cross over no problem.
I'm not sure who's coming in with him exactly but I'm sure he'll have coaches specific to hurler, hurling skills coaches who'll come in and work on that element of the game.
McCarthy might wish the hurlers well under Gilroy but the loss of players from the football panel to the hurling panel is not something he wishes to see. "I certainly hope not! We're riding our crest of a wave and want to keep that going for another few years."
Picture credit: Sportsfile
David McGee, Markets and Strategy Partner, PwC and Aogán Ó’Fearghaíl, GAA President along with Dublin Footballer James McCarthy and Galway Hurler Gearoid McInerney were at the announcement of the September PwC GAA/GPA Player of the Month Awards at a reception in PwC Offices, Dublin.
