Daly ready to rise to the occasion

NATIONAL LEAGUES:THESE ARE strange days for intercounty hurling: One week Kilkenny go out and beat Cork by 27 points, the next week Dublin come out and very nearly beat Kilkenny – only to lose out in the end by two. Still, Kilkenny are heavily fancied to beat Tipperary in the league final on Sunday week.

It could be explained by former Tipperary manager Babs Keating’s suggestion on national radio during Sunday’s game that Kilkenny weren’t really trying against Dublin, but Anthony Daly isn’t so sure.

“Well it’s hard to know,” says the Dublin manager. “Kilkenny have a very proud record and don’t want to lose any game, especially at home. A bit like Kerry in the football.

“But I’m under no illusions, and they probably weren’t up for it as much as a Leinster semi-final. But then we probably weren’t up for it as much as a Leinster semi-final either.

“I’m just delighted to have given them a good game, and been tight enough at the finish. But sure Babs is entitled to his opinion. He knows a fair bit about it.”

While Dublin now turn their attention to the Leinster championship date with Antrim on June 7th, Daly didn’t deny that Sunday gave them some final encouragement out of an already encouraging league.

“We lost our way badly coming up to half-time, for some reason. But they battled it right out in the second half. Maybe they got caught up in being so close in the end. That will only come with experience, But it’s a league game in April. And a learning curve still for a lot of them.”

As for Keating’s other suggestion, that Kilkenny were now 12 points better than any other team in the country, Daly was a little more agreeing: “They’re a fair bit ahead anyway. It’s hard to quantify how many points. But look, no team stays winning forever. Maybe they’ll win it again this year, but maybe then someone will catch them next year.

“The big thing is their strength in depth. Like TJ Reid is not a definite this year. With any other team he’d be a definite. The same with Richie Hogan. That’s the beauty of it, keeping everyone else on their toes. Michael Kavanagh, I was talking to him for a second after Sunday, and he was saying you have to keep going.

“Tommy Walsh was taken off as well, as if that was a little message. Buck it up a little. That’s the conveyor belt of talent they have there, and in fairness to the management, they’ve handled it absolutely brilliantly. You have to give them credit for that.”

Dublin’s preparations for the Antrim game have been hit by the likely loss of regular centre back Ronan Fallon, who sustained a broken metatarsal in Sunday’s game with Kilkenny and will be in a cast for up to six weeks.

Pat Gilroy’s difficult task of trimming back his Dublin senior football panel has been partly eased by the unexpected retirement of long-serving defender Colin Moran, not that Gilroy would have wished it that way.

Moran recently underwent a hip operation in a last effort to get himself right for the championship, but after playing a small part in a club tie for Ballyboden St Enda’s last Saturday, the 29-year-old realised the problem hadn’t gone away and with that reached his decision to retire.