All things hurling with Anthony Daly

By Paul Keane

A little over a week out from the Dublin county final with Kilmacud Crokes, Anthony Daly sat down with reporters for over half an hour and talked hurling.

Tying him down to a single train of thought was next to impossible, as the Clare man’s mind danced from one subject to another.

In playful mood, he belly laughed at his own jokes, agonised over the ‘what ifs’ of a nearly season for his native county, discussed Liam Sheedy’s return in Tipperary, Limerick’s success and, of course, his role at Crokes.

It was Daly at his most engaging and spoke to the recent claim of Ryan O’Dwyer, the Crokes defender and former Dublin player, that the Clarecastle man is a natural poet and orator.

Daly’s eyes lit up initially when he spoke about why he’s managing Crokes this year, having previously managed Dublin for six seasons.

Being out in Crokes before, the amount of times I gave out medals, between minor medals and what not, I think I presented the senior medals to them in 2012, as well,” said Daly.

“I suppose when I launched the auld book, the Dublin version of it, I did it out there too, so I had an affinity with them in some ways, but when the call came in last October, it was still in the head, ‘that’ll be a long haul from Clare’, but the heartstrings were pulled, so I said, ‘yeah, I’ll give it a lash’. I didn’t know what I was letting myself in for!”

Crokes were county finalists in 2016 and 2017, beaten by a goal on each occasion, so could lay strong claims to being the second best team in Dublin. Yet, the fact that Cuala beat them both times before going on to win back-to-back All-Irelands suggested the gap between first and second was considerable.

“The weekend of the All-Ireland this year, when we had the sevens tournament at Crokes, we ramped it up really from then,” said Daly, whose side play Ballyboden St Enda’s on Sunday. “We brought them down to Clare, just for a taste of the good air down there! We brought them down to East Clare Golf Club. We played St Thomas’ of Galway on the way down. Great game, jeez, I’d fancy them to win Galway now, I have to say.

“We stayed the night and we trained in the home of the great Liam Doyle in Bodyke, so that was great. The following morning, we were off back to Dublin. We just said we were going to give it everything.”

Sheedy and his return to Tipperary for a second stint in charge, a second coming that Daly himself may yet mirror in Dublin, was next up for discussion.

“Top bloke,” said Daly, endorsing Tipp’s appointment. “I would have sent him an auld text saying, ‘capall dubh!’ I believe Tommy [Dunne)] is with him as well. Having worked with Tommy in Dublin, that’s a top, top coach he has beside him already.”

His own county, Clare, is rarely far from Daly’s mind, either.

Ah look, Clare-Limerick, it would have been a once-off for a final,” said Daly, referencing the regret felt in Clare that they slipped up to Galway in the All-Ireland semi-finals.

“It would have been a massive final in lots of ways.  A derby, All-Ireland final, and this is what the new system can throw up to us and will continue to throw up for us over the coming years.”

Daly was still happy for Limerick having held the director of coaching role at their underage hurling academy until shortly before he took the Crokes job late last year.

“And there’s more to come from Limerick, the likes of Barry Murphy coming through,” he said. “They’ve a fair pot of guys still to come through.”

If Daly gets the Dublin job in the coming weeks, as many expect, he will return to the post he held between late 2008 and 2014, claiming National League and Leinster titles in that period.

He has a deep understanding of the capital hurling scene and reckons there’s a huge amount of untapped talent in the county.

“From exit 12 as far as Lucan, how many hurlers have we got with Dublin from there since Dotsy O’Callaghan?” asked Daly. “I’m talking into the left of the M50 there.

Who has played from that vast area? I often took a wrong turn or decided I’d avoid road works and ended up out there. By Jesus, it’s bigger than Clare and how many hurlers have we got out of there? But they’re getting footballers out of there.

Football will always be the big draw for talented young dual players in the capital, as Daly found out on so many occasions while managing Dublin.

“We know how good a hurler Con O’Callaghan is and he’s not available, so there’s a massive difference between Dublin football and Dublin hurling, it’s impossible to compare the two,” he said.

“Yet, I think Dublin have every chance, if things fall right and are done right, whoever is there in charge, they are every bit good enough to get into that top three in Leinster and who knows after that.

“There’s no Kilkenny superpower there anymore, there really isn’t.”