Daly faces down his demons
A crestfallen Anthony Daly, shaking his head in disbelief after his Dublin side had been beaten to the tape by Antrim. They’d had a toe in the All-Ireland quarter-final but lost their footing, and to compound matters, it looked like their manager would fold up his tent.
Now Daly’s Dublin are in the 2011 Allianz Hurling League final. Did he come that close to walking?
“I did. Even though I knew I could go further with them, I came close to giving it up.
“If that had happened at the end of the first year I wouldn’t have thought that, but there’s this thing in the GAA, ‘give him two years and if it doesn’t work get someone else’. “You’d be conscious of that. I took a few days out, I wasn’t any company to anyone, and I was down about it.”
He retreated home, and when he turned his phone back on the following Wednesday it cheeped with invitations to return.
John Costello of the Dublin County Board was one of the first to call. He told Daly they had faith in him, and they weren’t alone.
Texts came in from the players, too. A message from Dave Curtin sticks with Daly (“because he was probably thick he wasn’t getting a run, in fairness”) as does Liam Ryan’s. He’d put a ball wide near the end against Antrim and was gutted but he still got in touch with his devastated manager.
Dublin’s ongoing involvement in the U21 championship was a tipping point; Daly was back in the capital within a week, had met up with selector Richard Stakelum and then-county board chairman Gerry Harrington.
The Tipp man and the Corkonian got the Clareman round. He’d be back for 2011.
What Daly brings is easy to see and hard to measure. The animated figure on the match day touchline is familiar, but away from the spotlight, for instance, he’s changed his approach in training.
“I probably decided to lighten up a bit, not to be trying to impose my values on these fellas.
“I’d probably come from the old school a bit, the old St Flannan’s way that you had to train harder than everyone else. Clarecastle was the same.
“I’m not obsessed with doing all the drills and sessions. We have the likes of John McEvoy and Martin Kennedy and that’s brought a freshness to the training.”
Although he laughs about the Facebook-friendly Dublin youngsters’ view of him (“Sure they probably think I’m an oul’ culchie”), his backstory has an echo for them.
Daly might have led Clare out of the wilderness before some Dublin players reached kindergarten, but their starting points are near enough.
“Clare came from a similar place, and you can refer to days when, while (Ger) Loughnane was preaching to us, until we decided to stand up and be men there was no point in taking on Cork or Tipp or whoever.
“When I got involved first, in 1990, with Clare, I remember a selector saying we had to put the pride back in the jersey, which I thought was rubbish.
“In that respect, knowing how low we were helps. So does referring to fellas like Brian Lohan and Seanie McMahon, who never played minor for Clare — fellas who realised it was about attitude, that if they believed in themselves and worked hard they’d get up there with the best.”
There’s plenty of evidence for their belief now. Beating Tipperary was a good night, and collecting Cork’s scalp in Páirc Uí Chaoimh another fillip, but Daly revisits their league opener for significance.
“We could have beaten Galway, Kilkenny seemed able to score easy enough in the league game, which would be a worry for this weekend, but we were down a good few bodies for most of the campaign.
“Not losing in Walsh Park was a big one, though. It was a great rallying point.
“We’d let ourselves down the previous year and we targeted giving a performance anyway. We got ahead, collapsed and didn’t score for 20-odd minutes, and then dug out a draw. Conal Keaney was immense that day. We built on that.
“Last year we got caught up with, ‘what do we have to do to win this?’ a bit too much, and this year we’ve gone back to playing our best and seeing where that takes us. I know everyone says that, but if you can stick to it . . .
“After Waterford we had Tipp, but there were tough days against Wexford, when we didn’t have Keaney, and against Offaly.
“The first day, though, was probably the big one. We got a result away from home, Walsh Park isn’t an easy place to go to, and while I wouldn’t dismiss any of the days — that’s the importance of Division 1 for Dublin — the first day out was the one.”
The last day wasn’t bad either.
With fewer than 4,000 bodies in Páirc Uí Chaoimh for Cork-Dublin, Daly was aware through the bush telegraph that they were close to a place in the final. Sub keeper Finn McGarry was warming up alongside him as the game wound down, with Dublin one up, and he kept yelling at the manager that a draw would do, but Daly was unsure.
“By the final whistle I knew. Otherwise 2,000 people behind me had it all wrong. I never got as much goodwill from Cork people!”
They’ve had plenty of goodwill from their own. Daly instances the defeat of Tipperary under lights in Croke Park, and a tall man in an Arnotts jersey he met heading out with his daughter afterwards: “‘You’re not staying for the football?’ I said to him.
“‘I wouldn’t follow the footballers at all,’ he said, ‘That’s a great night tonight though,’. Himself and the daughter were beaming over the Tipp game and they were happy out. Heading off before the football game. They’re great supporters, a great hard core.”
Tomorrow they face the black and amber. Dublin’s record this year is good, and Daly knows that rankles in the south-east.
“It’s old hat to Kilkenny. We know they won’t want to lose to us, and they know Dublin are making strides, so they’ll want to lay down a marker. Maybe the curve might be on a slight decline there, but look, they still eased into the league final. They’re still the team to beat.
“We’ll go into it with a great sense of freedom. People won’t expect us to win it, they’ll expect Kilkenny to nail early goals and put us away.
“But we’ll go out and enjoy it, and we’ll bear in mind that it’s four weeks to the Offaly game in the championship. That’s occupying a fair part of my mind as well!”
Good to be back. Good to see him back.
KILKENNY (SH v Dublin): D Herity; J Dalton, B Hogan, N Hickey; P Hogan, J Tyrrell, JJ Delaney; TJ Reid, M Rice; J ‘Cha’ Fitzpatrick, M Ruth, E Larkin; C Fennelly, E Brennan, R Hogan.
DUBLIN (SH v Kilkenny): G Maguire; N Corcoran, T Brady, P Kelly; J McCaffrey, J Boland, S Durkin; Liam Rushe, Alan McCrabbe; C McCormack, R O’Dwyer, C Keaney; P Ryan, D O’Callaghan, D Plunkett.
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