Coaching corner: Anthony Daly

Former All-Ireland winning Clare captain and current Dublin hurling boss, Anthony Daly

Bravest coaching call, any sport?

“John Allen in the All-Ireland semi-final of 2005, taking off Brian Corcoran and Ronan Curran when Cork were losing to Clare. I was up the sideline from him, managing Clare and thinking: ‘We must have them now if they’re taking them off.’ Of course, he put on Neil Ronan and Wayne Sherlock, who had a major influence on the game and helped win it, but if they hadn’t won it, John would have been blamed for taking Corcoran and Curran off. They were linchpins of the team, big players, and it was a huge call. I often said to (Brian) Lohan after: ‘Why didn’t you give him the odd puck?’, they might have left him on.”

“One free to win it, one player to take it (not one of your own players)?

“Sure it can’t be Paul Ryan? I suppose Henry (Shefflin) would be a lot of people’s choice — hopefully he’ll be bit worn out for us after carrying the Olympic torch — but the one closest to my memory would be Sean McMahon. Until Seanie came along, a 65 was a 50-50 effort, but his ratio was phenomenal — even though I wouldn’t let him take one late on in the 1995 All-Ireland. I often thought if I had missed that, with the greatest 65-taker of all time standing behind me... Why did I take it? I don’t know, a moment of madness, it wasn’t logical.

“If one of the Dublin lads did something similar? In the relegation game against Galway this year Paul Ryan was off the field for a late free and Niall McMorrow waved away plenty of lads to take it, and on the sideline we were thinking, ‘Niall’s taking that?’, but he stuck it. I suppose it’s confidence. Go back to 1990 and David O’Leary taking the penalty against Romania, and we were all probably thinking, ‘David O’Leary?’. But he obviously felt confident taking it.”

Greatest pressure free you’ve seen, hurling and football?

“I think when you’re a point or a goal down, you’re under more pressure. In 1999, Davy (Fitzgerald) scored an unreal penalty for us: we were gone in the Munster championship against Tipp, three points down and time almost up, and he came up the field in Páirc Uí Chaoimh and buried the goal. In football, Maurice Fitzgerald’s kick against the Dubs in Thurles was a great score. He was just one of those gifted guys you’d pay money to go and see, even though I wouldn’t be as big a football fan as I am of hurling.”

The best ref around? Why?

“I like referees who don’t look down their noses at players. The slogan is Give Respect Get Respect and I think that cuts both ways. I was at an intercounty game recently — a football game — and the referee shouted at players to ‘get away’. He had a real schoolmaster tone, belittling the players. In our time Dickie Murphy was very good — he’d mingle with players and say, maybe, ‘from where I was I thought it was a free’. Players respect that and move on.”

Managerial challenges: Keane and McCarthy in Saipan. Who was right?

“At the time I thought McCarthy was right. Keane had good points to make and I know from management that you trust certain people to provide certain things, and if they don’t get it right, you feel responsible. There were problems in Saipan, and there were things on McCarthy’s side that weren’t right, but ultimately I think it was the greatest pity that Keane couldn’t say ‘this only comes around every four years, I’ll put the head down and drive on’. I know he was coming from a different environment with Manchester United — I remember being over on a trip to watch United train one time, and when the players get out of their cars to train other lads just jump in immediately to valet them. It’s a different world.

Obviously Saipan was totally different, and I felt Keane was wrong to walk away, that he could have stayed on. I was still playing myself then and would have felt there was a bigger picture there if he could see. If he’d been playing against Spain in 2002, who knows?”

Who’s the most underrated sportsman in Ireland?

“Women’s sport generally is very underrated, I think. The ladies’ football and camogie doesn’t get a fair crack of the whip, even though the likes of Cora Staunton from Mayo is fairly well heralded. I suppose with three daughters playing sport I see that, but the level of skill and lack of cynicism is fantastic. The likes of Mags Darcy and Mary O’Connor could do with more publicity, certainly.”

The ugliest moment in sport?

“The carry-on of some parents at underage sport would concern me. Parents abusing players at U14 level and younger, or parents who can’t see past their own kids, that’s something I can’t stand. A bit of constructive criticism is no harm, but some of the stuff I’ve witnessed even at U10 level is a desperate turn-off, and all because the mentor wants to go down to the local and boast about winning an underage game. Mind you, I’ve heard Liam O’Neill, the new GAA president, talking about that, which is encouraging.”

An extra ticket falls into your lap for your favourite sports event — what sportsperson would you bring?

“I don’t know if I’d bring anyone prominent, they’d have no problem getting tickets! I remember in 2002, I’d finished playing and was in Dublin for the All-Ireland, Clare versus Kilkenny. I was in a pub in Abbey St with the Clarecastle crowd — thinking, so this was what it was like for ye when we were playing — and a man from Doolin in north Clare came in with his daughter, about 13, desperate for a ticket for her. He asked if I had anything and I’d nothing left, but I said to Sparrow (Ger O’Loughlin) and Fergie Tuohy, ‘we’ll give it one burst and try to get a ticket for the child’. Of course we ended up coming back with 13 tickets, but it was great the man and his daughter got two tickets together for the stand: the fear that she’d have to go off and sit with a stranger was gone. They were delighted, and he used to drop into me the odd time he was in Ennis for years after that.”

The biggest sports tearjerker of all time? Why?

“For myself, Clarecastle losing a replay in extra time to Birr in the All-Ireland club. Daithi Regan scored from about 90 yards... Spurs? That’s been a lifetime of tears!!”

The worst choke of all time?

“When Greg Norman got caught by Nick Faldo in the Masters in 1996. Gut-wrenching to watch. I’d nearly want to turn it off. I hate seeing people being made fools of in public, even on those reality singing shows and so on. Norman put in a fantastic golf course in Doonbeg, up the road from me.”

The one player in any sport you’d love to coach?

“Brian O’Driscoll is a fair warrior, even when Leinster couldn’t stand up to Munster, people in Shannon and Young Munster saw him as fearless. You’d have to admire him for his guts.”

The one player in any sport you’d hate to coach?

“Joey Barton. What could you do with him? Professional or amateur, the good guys are the good guys and the bad guys are always the bad ones. I remember seeing Dimitar Berbatov play for Spurs and the sheer lack of effort, the lack of work... compared to Robbie Keane, who ran around like a blue-arsed fly the same night. In GAA you have the luxury of getting rid of those guys if it’s not working out, but that’s not an option with contracts and so on. But Barton? They can’t all be wrong, can they?”

Your dream selector, not counting your current ones?

“Brian Cody’s a great guy but would he be a selector? I don’t think so. Selector might be a different role. When I started off as a manager I was young and Fr Harry Bohan was a great help. Sean Boylan would have a huge amount to offer, and would be fantastic with players. And was a hurling man before he got stuck in football.”

The one sports moment you wouldn’t wipe from the VCR?

“Amhrán na bhFiann in Croke Park for the England rugby game, seeing the tears come down John Hayes’ face, the history of it... it was an iconic moment, not to mind giving them a hockeying after in the game itself. Whether you agreed or not — and I did — it was a great move. Though it probably caused as many arguments as Keane vs McCarthy.”

The one sports moment you’d visit if you had a time machine?

“When Clarecastle won the Clare county championship in 1945, our second title. My father played on that team and won his first championship medal that year. He passed away when I was eight and I didn’t know him that well, so that’s a moment I’d like to visit.”

The one sports moment that’s more overrated than any other?

“Wimbledon. Five sets for men’s is far too much. I’d rather snooker to tennis on TV. There’s probably too many Classics in the horseracing as well. I like horseracing but on the flat there are too many.”