After the initial surprise that greeted Dublin GAA's appointment of Pat Gilroy as Dublin Hurling manager, attention quickly turned to the challenges facing him. The primary task at hand was to build his coaching ticket.
Former Galway boss Anthony Cunninghan joined Mickey Whelan and Paddy O'Donoghue, both members of Gilroy's coaching side when they won Sam Maguire in 2011. Whelan coached the St. Vincent's hurling team for the past two years and is a key figure in understanding the club game.
His second task was enticing available talent back into Dublin hurling. This task has also gone well so far as a former great, Conal Keaney of Ballyboden St Endas, has rejoined the Dublin hurling panel at the age of 35.
Keaney was a dual-county player for Dublin and played under Gilroy when he was in charge of the Dublin footballers.
Keaney is just the latest to rejoin the panel, after All-Star hurler Danny Sutcliffe also returned late last year. Sutcliffe revealed a Pat Gilroy phone call was all that it took to convince him to come back.
On the field, Dublin progressed to the Bord na Mona Walsh Cup semi-final last week after they hammered Antrim 4-16 to 0-17. They face Davy Fitzgerald’s Wexford next Sunday.
It's early days yet, but preliminary proceedings seem to be going well for Gilroy's reign.
