Anthony Daly: Cork will show Pat and the Ryans how much they mean to them

At times, I find myself wondering if some of us just place too much emphasis or importance on hurling.

Sat, 01 Mar, 2025 - 17:11

We had planned to have our AGM of Camán Racing on Thursday night in the Woodlands Hotel in Adare, but as soon as I heard about the sad passing of Ray Ryan on Tuesday, I rang Mark Landers to knock it on the head.

It was done out of respect for the Ryan family, but, being honest, I was really upset by the news of a young man losing his life at just 43. No words can describe it. No words can take away the intolerable pain and suffering attached to such a tragedy.

The suddenness of such a loss always makes us question our mortality. It’s a cliché, but it does frame our perspective. Hurling people absolutely love hurling but we love life more, even if our lives are enriched by our passion, even if this wonderful game effectively shapes who we are and how we live that life.

At times, I find myself wondering if some of us just place too much emphasis or importance on hurling. We often let the game cloud our thinking when there is no need for us to get so hot and bothered about stuff that, ultimately, we shouldn’t get so stressed out about.

On Wednesday morning, I got a fairly stern anonymous letter scolding me for my comments on ‘The Saturday Game’ last weekend around the handpass rule that failed to attract enough support at Congress earlier that day.

There were no agendas to anything I said. I just gave my opinion on the matter. I fully understand the principle of trying to clean up the handpass rule and ensure there is a clear striking action. But I honestly felt that the proposal on the table to amend rule 4.2(b) would only lead to more rucks, which is not what our game needs.

I might be wrong, but that’s just my opinion. I didn’t take offence to the letter but as soon as I read it, I thought of Ray Ryan. And I said to myself, ‘What is the point in worrying about this stuff? Would that person not been better off to have spent those few minutes with their family than writing that letter.’

For all the time we spend talking about hurling, the real beauty and joy is often not in the discussion but in the time we spend in one another’s company. After we buried Bishop Walsh, one of the greatest hurling men I ever knew, last Monday, I went for a few pints with a few Éire Óg diehards in the Diamond Bar.

The lads got a great kick out of a story I told when Pat Healy, Fergie Tuohy and myself travelled home with Bishop Willie after Cork had beaten us in a Munster U21 semi-final. We were getting close to Clarecastle when myself and Pat hatched a plan.

Bishop Willie’s boot was stacked with new hurleys so we said we’d say our thanks to Willie for the lift, grab four sticks each – and run. Fergie, who was in the front, knew nothing of our plan.

We thought we’d got away clean until Fergie told us the next night at Clarecastle training what Bishop Willie had said to him when he dropped him off a few hundred metres up the road. "I’d say my boot is fairly well lightened after those two. You might as well take a couple (of hurleys) now too."

I nearly had a heart attack when Tuts told me. But when I thought of it afterwards, I convinced myself what Willie was probably thinking, that taking a hurley wasn’t really stealing. He knew those sticks were going to a good home, that they’d be well looked after.

Bishop Willie was very aligned to Éire Óg when he left St Flannan’s and as we were sharing those stories together in the Diamond, we were really just celebrating Willie’s great life.

When you hear then the following morning that Ray Ryan is gone at 43, life doesn’t seem fair. My only real association with Ray was when I was the Dublin manager and we played Cork during the infamous strike spring of 2009. I was trying to find out who these new lads were and I just remember saying to myself when I saw Ray’s club, Sarsfields, that this fella was probably going to be handy enough. And from what I remember, he was.

I only found after that he was Pat’s brother, who I remembered as this classy, stylish midfielder from the 2000 Munster final. I think I speak for a lot of hurling people when I speak of the admiration I have for Pat. I don’t really know Pat but I nearly admire him for how his team plays the game as much as how genuinely sound and decent he comes across.

If Clare hadn’t won the All-Ireland last year, I genuinely wouldn’t have wanted any other team to beat us other than Cork, purely for how they played the game, the way they hurled, and for how Pat wanted them to hurl.

I really feel for the Ryan family this week, especially Ray’s wife and children, along with his parents and brothers. I think all of our thoughts are with them this week more so than worrying about the outcomes of any games.

Kilkenny this evening in the Páirc will have been the last thing on Pat’s mind but I’m sure his selectors and coaches will have planned as well as they could have for the game – because that’s what Pat would have wanted them to do.

It will have been hard for the players to see the pain their manager is in but, in a reverse way, it will drive them on too to give that bit more to show Pat and his family how much they really mean to them, and the county. With Kilkenny not showing enough consistency in games, and with Cork also eager to make up for last week’s loss to Tipperary, I fancy Cork.

At the same time as Cork-Kilkenny throws in this evening, there is a really intriguing game in Wexford Park when Galway arrive in town. Wexford looked doomed to relegation last week but, all of a sudden, they can now see a chink of light at the end of what looked like a dark tunnel.

I’d say they love Keith Rossiter as a manager but this is a chance now for the Wexford public to really come out in numbers and get behind a young team that looks to have turned a corner. They’ll know too that they’re meeting a Galway team that, while impressive against Kilkenny and Clare, have a track record of inconsistency too. Micheál Donoghue looks to have ironed out some of those creases but Wexford will be much more confident of a win here than they would be if Limerick, who they still have to play, were coming to town. It’s even trickier again for Galway who, before last Sunday, would have expected Wexford to be pointless and still on the slide downwards coming into this game. Galway will still be hard to beat so I give them a very hesitant nod.

After my column here on Monday, I got a good few comments back questioning the authenticity of my opinion. Eamonn Cleary, the former Wexford player, wrote on Facebook jokingly : ‘Dalo, who are you trying to cod?’ He more or less said that Clare only care about one thing this year – and it’s not the league.

Fair point, but the concern I expressed in that column was genuine around a number of issues. The lack of hunger and bite bothered me and are we going to get the three or four players we need off the supporting cast? There is no smokescreen here. I would be genuinely concerned, even more so now with the news that Shane O’Donnell is gone for the year.

It is devastating news but, knowing Brian Lohan, his attitude will be, ‘Hi, who’s going to put their hand up now and take his jersey?’ Some of the players should equally be asking themselves the same question.

Clare wouldn’t have won the All-Ireland without Shane. He is an absolutely incredible player, but if you forensically analyse the All-Ireland semi-final and final last year, Clare still managed for periods of those matches without him.

Shane went off for a while against Kilkenny with a finger injury while he was gone for the second half of extra-time. Shane might have done a lot of the hard work beforehand but everyone has to roll up their sleeves even more now. Then again, these lads have known adversity before, and overcome it.

Clare just need to see more from some of these younger lads now. I might have been too hard on some of them, especially Cian Galvin, Darragh Lohan and Patrick Crotty, particularly considering how well they did against Kilkenny and Galway.

It's not as straightforward as it used to be for young players to make that jump, but it’s also been very hard to break into what has been a very settled team that has been there or thereabouts for the last three years. If you’re a good young half-back like Cian Galvin, you still have to try and shift either Diarmuid Ryan or a generational player like David McInerney to get into the team.

It’s difficult for a team struggling for form looking for points in the Gaelic Grounds but Limerick normally bring out the best in us, even if Clare’s record against them isn’t great. I’ve no doubt that Clare will deliver a better performance but I still expect Limerick to win.

Meanwhile in Division 1B, I’d fancy wins for Waterford, Offaly and Carlow. The Dublin-Waterford game is the big one here. I know from my experience with the Dubs how hard it is to go to Walsh Park and, while I’m expecting a big display from Dublin, I still fancy Waterford.

Still, who really knows what’s going to happen? All I know, and I think I speak for a lot of hurling people, is that the most important thing this weekend is supporting the Ryan family in their time of need.