GAELIC GAMES:THE GATHERING of hurling managers to promote National League finals is usually a tedious enough affair. Anthony Daly's presence changed all that yesterday.
The Dublin chieftain and heroic Clare captain during hurling’s revolutionary 1990s even made Brian Cody chuckle with that contagious brogue of his. But Daly was not just joking around.
On Sunday he sends out a very serious Dublin side to face a weakened Kilkenny outfit. There is no Henry Shefflin due to his rehabilitating cruciate knee ligament. John Tennyson, Aidan Fogarty, Richie Power and Michael Fennelly are also laid low while Eoin Larkin and Tommy Walsh are unlikely to start having shipped knocks in club action last weekend. Cody will release the team, as per usual, late tonight.
“In fairness, they don’t do any messing around,” said Daly of Kilkenny. There were three underage battles raging down below us on a perfect day in Croke Park.
“When they name the team, that’s the team and they go to their positions usually. They will be strong. Sure, when do you see them weak?”
Earlier, Daly was asked for a health report as Dublin prepare for their first National Hurling League final since 1945. “Not as bad as his crowd anyway,” he nods towards his smiling elder peer.
“Perversely, (the league) has been the chance for other lads. And then Conal (Keaney) coming back to the hurling and Ryan O’Dwyer throwing in his lot with us and then a couple of under-21s who won Leinster last year came in and were given an opportunity so we have a bit more on the panel than we thought.
“Stephen Hiney is out for the year. He is a massive, massive loss as he is our talisman at the back. A few doubts. McCrabber (Alan McCrabbe) is just back . . Liam Rushe is touch and go but we’re hoping he can play some part. David Treacy is back training but wouldn’t be up to playing even a half a game. He might be able to play some part. The knee seems to be holding up.”
MC for the day, TG4’s MacDara Mac Donncha, probed Brian Cody with a question or rather a generalisation that “a lot of people” are suggesting Kilkenny are slipping back into the pack.
Cody remained a model of serenity as the pair of Clare swashbucklers, Daly and ‘Sparrow’ Ger O’Loughlin along with former arch-nemesis Donal O’Grady looked on.
“We were never anywhere else but in the pack as far as I’m concerned, MacDara. There are six, seven, eight top hurling counties that are always in the hunt, with the potential to be in an All-Ireland final. Dublin are one of those counties now. I’m not saying it because we are playing them next Sunday. I’m saying it because I genuinely believe it,” said Cody.
Back to Daly. A story is put to him. A few years back veteran Dublin hurlers Kevin Flynn and Liam Ryan are shedding tears of joy after beating Wexford for the first time down there. Liam Rushe is looking at them wondering what all the fuss is about. Sure, it is only Wexford. Daly doesn’t miss a beat. Glancing around the room he sees a giant-size poster of former team-mate Ollie Baker in his newly acquired Antrim garb.
“In ’95, after we won the Munster final, the baldy fella there in the Antrim jacket told me he wasn’t at either of the previous two Munster finals. He was in the States for one of them and at a funeral for the other one! There’s me inside crying after that match. He was there: ‘What’s the big deal, like?’ That’s young lads being young lads. Rushie would be a confident lad that way.”
The tension that suffocated the Clare hurlers for so many years disappeared once they conquered Munster. Then they became an unstoppable force. Kilkenny are the immovable object for Dublin.
“I know the All-Ireland final in ’95 wasn’t a classic but I certainly didn’t feel any tension coming into that,” Daly went on . . . because we hadn’t been losing those ones. I’m hoping the lads can come into it with that sense of freedom. What have we to lose? No one really gives us a chance. They are the kingpins for how long now?”
“We need to play with that feeling. Go and hurl. Go to the ball. There is nothing worse than standing off and doing nothing because you will definitely be annihilated then. Go to the bloody thing and if you make a mistake, you make a mistake but have the courage of your conviction. That’s the thing.”
