Anthony Daly: We never had any baggage with Galway but much has changed

If anything, I always had a grá for Galway, as most people in Clare had in the 1980s and early 1990s before we were successful

Dalo chases Alan Kerins of Galway in the 1999 All-Ireland quarter-final replay. Pic: Patrick Bolger, Inpho

At the outset of my career with Clare in the late 1980s and early 1990s, my first time running into Galway was not a good experience. They gave us a right trimming in Ballinasloe. I don’t remember the score but what I do remember is this young Rabbitte fella, namely Joe, emerging on the scene and me asking myself afterwards, ‘Jeez will we ever get up to these lads' level, especially with all the young players they’re producing?’ 

At that stage, it wasn’t long after Galway had won successive All-Irelands in 1987 and 88 and, while they tailed off after the 1990 All-Ireland final defeat to Cork, they still seemed to be operating in a different stratosphere to us in Clare.