Anthony Daly: I felt a little like an imposter when I won my first All-Star
FIRST ALL-STARS: Tipperary's Rhys Shelly and Robert Doyle are among the ten new All-Stars. Picture: ©INPHO/Leah Scholes
As soon as I looked at the All-Stars team when it was announced, the first thing that struck me was the high volume of first-time winners, ten in total. Friday will be a special night for those ten guys because your first award is a very treasured memory.
I was absolutely thrilled when I won my first in 1994 but it was a strange kind of night too; I felt a little like an imposter when looking at all the other big guns beside me. I was probably more conscious again because Clare had been hammered in the Munster final for the second successive year under my captaincy.
Limerick had beaten us in that 1994 final and I remember thinking that night of the All-Stars, ‘Do those guys really rate me? Do they really think I deserve this award?’ That might sound strange in the context of it being such a momentous personal achievement but that was where my head was at around that time.
The following evening, my club Clarecastle arranged a special presentation night for me, which I knew nothing about. One of the lads said to me, ‘Why don’t you bring the All-Star into Powers (pub) to show the locals?’ I had no real interest in doing so but my arm was twisted. As soon as I walked in the door, the roof lifted off the place. A stage had been erected. The place was packed. We had a whale of a night.
If I’m being honest, I thought at the time that it may be the highlight of my career. When you had failed as spectacularly as I, and we, had so often in Clare, I probably didn’t think we would ever win an All-Ireland. Of course I always wanted to win a Celtic Cross but it was very hard to see any light at the end of a dark tunnel at that time. And then it all changed so quickly within the space of 12 months when eight Clare players, including myself, were up on the All-Star stage.
It's a different time now. Three of the Cork players who won a first All-Star – Seán O’Donoghue, Ciarán Joyce and Brian Hayes (along with Darragh Fitzgibbon who won a third) – are certainly not thinking the way I was in 1994 when the last game of their season also ended in a hammering and chronic disappointment. They are only thinking about finally winning that first All-Ireland.
It will be a similar thought process for the other seven lads winning a first All-Star; Rhys Shelly, Robert Doyle, Eoghan Connolly, Jake Morris, Andrew Ormond, Mossie Keoghan and Cian O’Sullivan. The five Tipp lads will be targeting more All-Irelands; Mossie will be desperately trying to win his first; so will Cian.
Every county always feels that they could, or should, have won more All-Stars, especially those that reach the semi-finals. But being honest, I think this is the most inoffensive All-Stars team that I can ever remember.
Almost by reflex, the first thing we nearly always do is look for the player who has been wronged, before then outlining their reasons for grievance. Straight up, as soon as I saw this team, I didn’t feel there was any case to be answered. I can’t think of anyone who has a right to feel disaffected or aggrieved.
In any other year, Cork might have a reason to feel that they were entitled to more than four awards, especially when they won the league and Munster, and of how they lit up the summer with so much scintillating hurling. But they’ll also accept too that you can’t suffer a meltdown in the second half of an All-Ireland final and not suffer the consequences.
It's gas the way an All-Star selection could turn so dramatically in a final but July 20th was no ordinary final. At least it wasn’t as bad as in 2021 when Cork also got hammered in a final and they became the first losing All-Ireland finalists not to win a single All-Star. That was never going to happen this time around because Cork had played too much good stuff for a handful of their players not to be recognised.
All that has to be decided now is the Hurler-of-the-Year and Young Hurler-of-the-Year. My choice would be John McGrath and Robert Doyle. I wouldn’t be surprised if Jake Morris won the HOTY but I would be if Robert Doyle didn’t win YHOTY.
Darragh McCarthy has a great chance of being selected as the best young player in the country, but I just think Doyle is more deserving. We had all heard about Darragh before this year but very few of us were aware of Robert Doyle and what he was capable off. But we all are now.
It was that kind of a year, especially with Tipp effectively coming out of nowhere. Very few had expected them to even come out of Munster, never mind win the All-Ireland.
It’s no surprise then that there are ten first time All-Star winners. Heartiest congrats to them. Heartiest congratulations to all 15 recipients.
