Out of the shadows and into the light as Daly’s Dubs deliver
In the 1980s we had Offaly and Galway making the breakthrough.
In the ‘90s it was Clare, Wexford and Limerick to an extent, but all through the ‘00s we waited and waited for another team to emerge.
It never happened.
Yesterday in Croke Park, however, it did, and with all due respect to the other teams mentioned, this one was a bit special.
Dublin has been renowned for its football support since the ‘70s and I haven’t been alone in saying what a huge boost it would be if the hurlers made the breakthrough.
Now I know this was just a league title as opposed to an All-Ireland but it’s still a national title and the manner in which Dublin finished off Kilkenny yesterday was emphatic and impressive.
There’s been a lot of talk in recent months from people very high up in the GAA about outside managers and whether they’re being paid. Would someone now please put a price on the value of that win for Dublin yesterday?
I’m not suggesting for a second here that Anthony Daly is being paid – I don’t give a damn one way or the other. It’s none of my business.
What is my business, as an analyst in this paper, is to comment on the job being done by the various managers whether outsiders, like Anthony Daly and Donal O’Grady in Limerick, or home managers like Brian Cody in Kilkenny or Denis Walsh in Cork.
And I have to say, I was impressed with the job done by both Daly and O’Grady this weekend.
I worked with Anthony when he was a player with Clare and a couple of qualities always impressed me. His leadership through the years and his ability to learn and absorb the lessons of victory and defeat.
Last year Dublin had a poor league and had to beat Limerick in the final game to avoid relegation before going out tamely to Antrim in the championship.
That was a massive setback for Dublin and for Anthony but he learned from it.
He tweaked his backroom team, changed the physical routine and the results followed. They were as strong and as fit as anyone.
I believe he also stepped back a little from the coaching side, has learned how to delegate and their first touch was near perfect yesterday. He has also become smarter on the line making the right switches at the right time.
A word of warning though. Anthony will have to learn from this victory also. It wasn’t the real Limerick they beat in the relegation decider last year and this wasn’t the real Kilkenny yesterday.
The standard of hurling Dublin played was fantastic and their defence was outstanding. One goal conceded, to Eddie Brennan, and that should have been a ball better defended, but apart from that not a single Kilkenny forward scored from play.
Niall Corcoran, Tomás Brady and Peter Kelly, all take a bow, Kelly a late change from wing-back to the corner.
The half-backs, John McCaffrey, Joey Boland and Shane Durkin, were outstanding. In midfield Liam Rushe was tremendous, and up front, every forward scored and so did three of the subs.
This was a terrific team performance by Dublin. As impressive as anything else was the way they drove on, took their points and really put their foot to Kilkenny’s throat.
They should savour this, but keep the feet on the ground. Offaly will be no cakewalk in the championship.
As for Kilkenny, I’ve never seen them as poor in their touch, nor have I ever seen a Kilkenny side as ill-disciplined.
Mind you, on the pitch afterwards I didn’t see too much concern on their faces, which makes me wonder – are they pulling the wool over our eyes a bit?
