Staying on: Daly ready to continue with Dublin

Anthony Daly will continue as Dublin senior hurling manager for at least one more season. Although Daly has yet to agree the details of his extension, Dublin chairman Andy Kettle has revealed he’s “99 per cent certain” to continue for a fifth season.

“There are a few little i’s to be dotted and t’s to be crossed,” said Kettle, “but Anthony is about 99 per cent certain to come back on board, and if I were a betting man, I’d be putting a few bob on him being Dublin hurling manager next year.”

Daly met both Kettle and Dublin secretary John Costello at length last week, and it seems Daly was keen to continue for one more year, and the Dublin County Board were keen too that he would stay.

“Anthony would have had a lot of enthusiasm himself and particularly after the game in Cusack Park against his own county, probably not the one he wanted to go out on, and probably an advantage to me to be able to remind him he mightn’t want to go out on that note.

“But Anthony is a very driven person. He does feel there’s a lot more in Dublin, he does feel he made one or two mistakes, that could be corrected, and he does feel that maybe Dublin lost their way a little bit and the mind went away from hurling on to other matters.

“In fairness to Anthony, he will look at everything closely. Probably, from his point of view, to come back again with the same group, both in panel and backroom, mightn’t be the best idea in the world.

“But this is a young enough panel, they’re not going away regardless of who is managing them. But really what we need to do with Dublin senior hurlers this year is stop the rot, turn it around and get it back up to at least where it was in 2011.”