Daly: No real merit in All Star awards

DUBLIN manager Anthony Daly says he does not see any great merit in the All Stars.

The Clare native, who won three awards himself in the 1990s, is known to have been disappointed with last year’s Division 1 champions only receiving two All Stars last October — Gary Maguire and Liam Rushe.

However, he insists the perceived lack of recognition will not be a source of inspiration for the team this year.

“I don’t think there should be All Stars or man of the matches. I think it really should be about the team. It’s grand for the lads who got them. Obviously, Peter Kelly was close. There was a bit of talk about that.

“It would be nice for a lad to pick up a thing like that, but it’s no real reflection and I don’t think it motivates anyone for the following year. It certainly won’t be a team speech for our lads. ‘We got two All Stars, we could have got three’.

“It’s all about focusing on the hurling and motivating ourselves to win games.”

Daly currently has eight players on the injury list — Conal Keaney, Stephen Hiney, Tomás Brady (all cruciates), Alan McCrabbe (hip), Ross O’Carroll (finger), Paul Schutte (hamstring), Simon Lambert (ankle) and Liam Rushe (hand). David Treacy returned to action for DIT against Laois on Saturday.

For the time being, Daly intends using the Walsh Cup campaign, which starts against Laois on Sunday, to try out players and is hoping to put a run together in the pre-season competition.

“You’d like to have a bit of a run in the Walsh Cup and you’d want to experiment, but the colleges’ lads aren’t available. Otherwise, you’d be off looking for challenge matches at the weekends and funny enough it’s in those matches you pick up most of these injuries.”

Daly knows there’s an onus on Division 1 teams to start well this year, with the top flight reduced to six teams from eight, the top three teams reaching semi-finals and the bottom two battling it out to avoid relegation.

“There is a longer run-in but there are five games and every game is absolutely vital now and you have to be ready for the first one and have as many bodies available as you can.

“The last couple of years we had seven matches and you had to be fairly on the ball, but this is making it even more intense. You’d be hoping to win one of the first two, get a good start and you are nearly mid table with six tables in it. You’d be anxious to get off to a good start if you could.”

Meanwhile, Keaney admitted he feared he might never play again after his motorbike accident last July which saw him damage his cruciate and lateral ligaments in his left knee.

“I’m just grateful to get back to where I am at the moment and if I see some action again it’ll be great. It’s great to be involved with Dublin.

“When I was lying in the hospital that time I didn’t think I’d ever get to put on a Dublin jersey again so hopefully I’m getting a little bit nearer to it.

“Initially, I was in the hospital and they told me my foot was broken and my cruciate was grand. Then it did a total flip when I went to Santry and it wasn’t broken and it was my knee where the damage was.”

The Ballyboden St Enda’s man hasn’t been given an approximate date about returning to action, mindful of not rushing back and potentially damaging the ligaments again.

“I still don’t know, to be honest with you,” he said about a possible return date. “There are certain procedures you have to go through and steps and boxes you have to tick and I’m doing that at the moment.

“It’s very hard when I have no goal at the end of it or date to come back. I’m just working away. It’s nearly the end of January now and I didn’t think I would even get here.

“It was a long Christmas trying to do the bit in the gym six or seven days a week. It’s tough going. I’m getting there but I don’t know where that day is going to come yet when I can go back playing.

“I’m really looking forward to getting a bit more stuff under my belt, start running and start zig-zagging and changing directions and stuff like that.”