It has already been quite the year for Seán Currie but the club All-Ireland winner hopes there will be even more hurling silverware brought back to the capital before the end of the 2025 season.
Currie was a key player for Na Fianna last January when they made history by winning the All-Ireland club senior hurling title for the first time.
Niall Ó Ceallacháin was the Na Fianna manager during that incredible journey and six days later he was back in Croke Park wearing the Dublin bainisteoir’s bib at the outset of his new role with the capital’s hurlers.
Five months on and while Dublin missed out on promotion in the league, they are now just one win away from booking a place in this year’s Leinster final. They face Galway on Sunday in what is effectively a playoff to meet Kilkenny in the provincial decider.
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Ó Ceallacháin is joined in the Dublin dressingroom by several of Na Fianna’s All-Ireland winning players – including brothers Seán Currie (25) and older brother Colin (27), Conor McHugh, AJ Murphy and Dónal Burke.
“It was definitely the best moment of my career winning that All-Ireland,” recalls Seán Currie. He is Dublin’s top scorer in this year’s championship and in all four of their games so far Currie has been the team’s leading marksman. He has registered a tally of 3-38 and is the second-highest scorer in the Leinster SHC after Lee Chin.
Currie’s average of just under 12 points per game has been a key factor in Dublin’s push for a Leinster final spot.
Dublin lost last year’s provincial final badly to Kilkenny, ending up 16 points adrift of the Cats at the final whistle. Dublin’s most recent Leinster triumph was in 2013. Before that you have to go back to 1961, but Currie insists the current crop believe they can lift the Bob O’Keeffe Cup.
“Yes, 100 per cent, that’s why we are here,” adds Currie. “We have no interest in coming second or third, we definitely have that belief we can go further than we did last year.
“We were disappointed with the performance when we did get to the final last year so we are focused on making amends for that and improving as we go on.”
[ Billy Ryan goal saves Kilkenny from Dublin second-half resurgenceOpens in new window ]
But there is no getting away from a perception Dublin have failed to deliver on their potential for much of the last decade.
“Definitely we have underperformed. I think where we want to be is competing for Leinster championships, competing for All-Ireland championships and I guess the reality is we haven’t been doing that over the last few years,” says Currie.
“But when you look at the group of players we have, I definitely think we are capable of going to that next level and that’s our aim.”
Ó Ceallacháin is Dublin’s first home-grown manager since Pat Gilroy, who had a one-year stint in 2018. In between there have been two Galway men at the helm: Mattie Kenny from 2019-22 and Micheál Donoghue from 2023-24.
However, Currie feels it is up to the hurlers on the field more than the coaches on the sideline to drive the team forward.
“It really comes down to the players, 95 to 99 per cent of our performance comes down to players; there is only that small extra couple of per cent that managers add.
“But do I think Niall has probably added that couple of per cent this year, small tactical tweaks that make a difference. The players enjoy playing for him.
“He is a really good manager – obviously, I had him for five years with Na Fianna. He definitely took Na Fianna to the next level from where we were, he brought us on year on year.”
Last week’s loss to Kilkenny was Dublin’s first in this year’s championship – following wins over Offaly, Wexford and Antrim. No matter how Sunday’s game in Parnell Park goes, Dublin are guaranteed a place in the knockout stages of the All-Ireland but a Leinster final is the target right now.
“We probably weren’t playing at the right level in the early stages of the league,” says Currie. “But we have continued to make a lot of improvements as the year has gone on.”
Sunday will tell if those improvements have been enough.
