Dublin hurling manager Humphrey Kelleher appears to have secured the services of dual player Conal Keaney for at least the remainder of the National Hurling League.

Keaney will again play in Sunday's meeting with Clare in Ennis, and is also expected to be available on the two upcoming weekends when both hurling and football feature on the same dates.

Last Sunday in Parnell Park provided another timely reminder of Keaney's central role in the Dublin hurling team. The Ballyboden player scored 2-3 of Dublin's 2-6 total, despite some uncharacteristically stray shooting. Kelleher yesterday reiterated his feelings on the availability of Keaney, who has also featured in the opening rounds of the football league under manager Tommy Lyons.

"There still hasn't been any formal agreement as such," said Kelleher, "but it is my understanding that Conal will be available to us for the remainder of the league. But still the most important thing in this situation is the wishes of the player.

"What is clear though is that his importance to the hurling team far outweighs his importance to the footballers. In fact he is invaluable to us."

While Kelleher believes there is still a place for the dual player in the modern game, he warns against players attempting to make themselves available to both codes on the same weekend. Typically the weekends where both football and hurling league games are fixed sees games played on consecutive days, Saturday and then Sunday, but in that situation Kelleher believes one game would have to take priority.

Originally, however, Kelleher was in danger of being without Keaney for this Sunday's game, as it clashes with the final stages of the Trench Cup, which includes Tallaght IT in Friday's semi-finals. Keaney would have been committed to that game had he not been red-carded while playing for Tallaght IT in the quarter-final, with the resulting suspension ending his interest in the college's competition.

As for Sunday's meeting with Clare, Kelleher admits there is huge room for improvement from the opening game against Galway. The five-point defeat might appear respectable on paper but in reality Dublin were simply outclassed in all areas of the field - with the exception, of course, of Keaney at midfield.

"The biggest problem was that so many of our players simply froze," said Kelleher. "Especially in the first half. Galway went up 1-6 to 0-1 and it looked like they were going to destroy us. But that didn't transpire once our lads got a bit of confidence back. And full credit to them for knuckling down.

"Still a lot of our problems were within our own control. We missed a lot of frees, gave away a lot of frees, and were generally poor with our shooting. I honestly feel that if we had done better in those three areas we could have won that match. I certainly thought we were as fit as Galway.

"In fact we had some players out for two hours before that game practising frees, and striking very well. Naturally it's not as easy in the heat of a game, so getting our confidence up to where it should be is a big task for us, and it won't be easy.

But we're only two months on the road and the improvement can come through more repetition and hard work."

And Clare's challenge on Sunday is likely to be yet another step up: "Well they are a big, physical team," added Kelleher. "And we really can't afford to be making many mistakes from the start. But this league is going to be a steep learning curve for us, and we're still trying to settle on the best 15 to 20 players that we've got. And a lot of them are still very young."