Anthony Daly: People labelled this league a phoney war. I'd disagree

TIED UP IN KNOTS: Cork's Alan Connolly is tackled by Tipperary players Padraic Maher, left, and Cathal Barrett in their Allianz Hurling League game in Semple Stadium. 

Three weeks out from when Clare and Dublin were due to play their opening matches in the 2013 championship, Davy Fitzgerald and I arranged a challenge game.

Fitzy said that he’d sort the venue for some place in Tipperary, but it was such a clandestine operation that the CIA and KGB would have been proud of the secrecy.

I was travelling from Clare but I was just heading in the general direction of Tipperary Town, not knowing where I was really going.

The Dublin bus was nearly at the junction for Cashel when I got a call from Ciarán ‘Hedgo’ Hetherton.

“What’s the storee Dalo,” Hedgo said in a panic, “will ya tell us where we’re going? If you don’t, we’ll be in Cork soon.”

The game was fixed for within an hour of Hedgo’s call. I rang Fitzy straight away.

“Hi, either you tell me where the game is on now, or else I’m turning the car around and going home.”

“Head for Boherlahan,” he said.

Hedgo was blessed that Ryan O’Dwyer — who is originally from Cashel — was on the bus because the Dublin lads would have had more of an idea where Belarus is than Boherlahan. They get lost when they go past the M50, so I rang Hedgo back to be on the safe side.

“Turn off for Cahir, head for Cashel and follow the signs for Boherlahan. Dwyer should know where to go. We can delay the game for half an hour if we have to.”

Fitzy wanted to make sure nobody knew the game was on but, shortly before I arrived at the pitch, I got a call from Cyril Farrell. Cyril might sometimes ring me about games or even a racing tip, but he was looking for directions to Boherlahan.

The lads from the local club obviously knew the game was on and the word soon got out. Five minutes into the match, there were 300 people standing on the bank behind me.

Eight years on and everything has changed so much. For so long we were trying to keep fans out — now we’re desperately trying to get them in. Of course, every team still wants to keep everything as in-house as possible, but I still believe there is a lot more to learn from league games — when the whole country can watch on TV — than challenge matches, where the organisation around them can resemble a US Special Forces covert operation.

The other difficulty with trying to organise challenge games in the past was trying to source them so close to the championship. You’d be searching the country. I’d often be so desperate to try out players in different positions that I might chance my arm with Brian Cody — when we were on the other side of the draw in Leinster — even though I knew Kilkenny didn’t do challenge games.

Cody always believed that the league provided far more of a gauge than challenge games. Not everyone has adopted that attitude, but you could hear the intent in Cody’s voice when he was interviewed last week after Kilkenny’s game against Laois.

“There’s no better place to go for a test next week than down to Ennis,” he said.

Jackie Tyrrell said in his book that Cody loved bringing teams to Clare to test their mettle. Kilkenny will arrive in Cusack Park this afternoon with all guns blazing because Cody never believed in silencing his armoury on the eve of the impending championship war.

A lot of people have labelled this league as a phoney war, but I certainly don’t think it has been. There was bound to be an element of shadow boxing between teams who are set to meet in the championship, but you could see how much sides were ramping it up last weekend.

That was evident in Salthill, Parnell Park and especially Corrigan Park.

Of course, you won’t be going all out, with the war paint fully on, three weeks before the big dance. But I don’t understand the attitude of completely concealing your hand, by the way, two or three weeks out from championship. As if people don’t already know your hand anyway, especially in the world we now live in.

State of the game

There has been a lot of talk lately about the state of the game, but I think the game will come good when it really matters.

That’s not to say it hasn’t mattered up to now but last weekend showed that it is beginning to mean more — and deliver more — as the championship gets closer.

It will mean even more again if we can get decent crowds back. That was blatantly obvious above in Belfast last Saturday. There were only 500 in Corrigan Park, but it felt like there was 5000.

There is so much to look forward to and this afternoon’s game in Ennis is an ideal way to kick it all off. The real beauty of two of the
weekend’s three marquee fixtures is that there are no guarantees that Clare and Kilkenny, and Cork and Galway will meet in the championship, which gives all four sides even more of an opportunity to cut loose.

Cork, Galway, and Kilkenny have an even greater licence again because they won’t play championship for three weeks. So why not let off the handbrake and just drop the pedal?

Even Dublin-Wexford is an intriguing game because both sides are slightly unsure of themselves after some mixed results.

Parnell Park is not the fortress it would be if there were crowds there but Dublin would still have really targeted their two home games.

Not getting anything out of those matches — albeit against Clare and Kilkenny — has to be a concern for Mattie Kenny but this afternoon’s clash is nearly a must-win ahead of a perilous quarter-final against Antrim in Navan in two weeks. If Dublin thought that may be a potential banana skin when the draw was made, they know for a fact now that it is.

Having secured their Division 1 status takes the pressure off Antrim and they can go and express themselves against a Laois side who, despite doing so much right against Kilkenny, are still craving that spark to ignite confidence and momentum.

I’m sure ‘Cheddar’ Plunkett will see this as the ideal chance to do so.

With Cork and Galway’s championship games against Limerick, and the winners of Dublin-Antrim still three weeks away, Kieran Kingston and Shane O’Neill can risk chancing a few players carrying knocks and niggles for tomorrow’s clash. Cork have picked a stronger team than last week because they know that a win, and a defeat for Tipperary, could put them top of the group. Galway also know that similar results for them could push them to the top of the table.

Shadow boxing

If there is to be any shadow boxing, I’d expect to see it tomorrow in Walsh Park. There are no guarantees Waterford and Tipp will meet in the championship but both sides will be loosely planning that they will. Waterford will also be conscious that their Munster quarter-final against Clare is only two weeks away.

On the otherhand, this is also the perfect opportunity for Liam Cahill to road-test his starting team 14 days out from championship. Doing so in the full glare of the public —
especially when Clare will forensically analyse every aspect of the performance — may be deemed a risk.

But in my mind, that’s still a far better scenario than playing a challenge game in a place you’re struggling to find on the map, and when you’re not even sure if fellas are even fully tuned in.

When I was heading into the Clare dressing room after that challenge game in Boherlahan to wish the lads all the best, Cyril was holding court with a gang of locals.

“Hi, Cyril,” I said, “you have way too much information on us now for The Sunday Game.”

It’s gas to look back on that carefree time, especially when every game now is behind lock and key. If lads heard there was an inter-county challenge game on down the road now, and that you could get in, 10,000 might turn up.

There would probably be live score updates on any amount of media platforms. Some scores could be trending on Twitter. And wouldn’t that be great?

I understand why teams want to keep something back, especially now when information is so easily accessible everywhere. But we’ve also probably become too uptight by trying to hide too much in the GAA in recent years. Teams need to trust themselves more now. And after the last 16 months, we’re all done with hiding and holding back.