New Dublin hurling manager Pat Gilroy says the fact that he didn't hurl at the highest level won't hold him back.

Some eyebrows were raised when it emerged that the Dubs' 2011 All-Ireland winning boss was to take the county's hurling reins, but ex-Dublin midfielder Gilroy today joked that he wasn't a stand-out footballer, either:

"A lot of people would argue that I didn't play football at a top level either," he quipped today at the launch of the AIG Hurling Classic. "I was on the pitch the odd time, so I wouldn't worry about that.

"And there's not an awful lot of technical stuff that we're going to be adding to these guys. If you look at them playing technically, they are all very, very capable. There are 50 hurlers in Dublin when you're watching the club championship who are technically very competent. It's about bringing that on to a different level for sure. But a lot of it is their mindset, their physical conditioning, their diets - all the package.

"If you're watching the game as well, if I had a choice, and there was a hurling match on and a football match on, I might have watched the hurling match for the excitement of it. So it's not something I would be overly concerned about," he is quoted in The Irish Times.

"And I would have played hurling and football for Vincent's, all the way up to minor. Then I went straight senior with hurling first. And I played two games then with the senior hurling team. Then I got on then to the Dublin under-21 football panel - and I never played hurling again, from when I was 19. I would have had to put so much effort in to try and stay in a county set-up that I just didn't have any time for hurling. I would have enjoyed them equally on the way up."

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