LOCKER ROOM:Anthony Daly's appointment will keep the momentum flowing for Dublin hurling

IF THE Dublin County Board's epic quest for a new hurling manager is ever turned into a movie (and there is the basis for a good thriller there), the closing credits might roll with Mr Jagger crooning that you can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you get what you need.

Three times over the last few months Dublin hurling was on the verge of walking up the aisle with excellent candidates who were imaginatively chosen, wooed with a template for management that was as impressive as the game has seen and three times for one reason or another Dublin hurling was left at the altar, not on a whim or because there was something better out there for the candidate, but because of genuine issues from the real world out there.

And in the end the posse of forlorn matchmakers looked to Clare, not to Ger Loughnane (who, though he might seem to be the sort of marquee name that was required, was never talked about or talked to) but to Anthony Daly.

Daly was a long shot. Three fine candidates, each resident a little further from the Pale, had been tried.

The process began with Nicky English who through no fault of his own other than that he, too, would have been perfect was coursed, hounded, harassed, cajoled, wooed, begged and sweet-talked through the weeks of helping his employers deal with the worst banking crisis in history.

The process seemed to end with the late withdrawal last weekend of another fine candidate for serious family reasons. There were no more credible names it seemed.

Finally, in desperation more than hope, Daly's was floated and feelers were put out. No, he wouldn't be doing club training with Kilmoyley in Kerry next year. Yes, he'd take a phone call. On Monday he was called. Yeah, he was interested. Yeah, he'd like to talk.

On Tuesday county board chairman Gerry Harrington, a key figure all the way through, county secretary John Costello plus Mike Connolly, who masterminded and implemented much of the current structure of Dublin hurling, travelled to the Lakeside Hotel in Killaloe.

A lot of work and thought had been put into the progressive package presented to candidates in order to free them up to be able to give the best of themselves to training and running the county senior team and their were two key notions underpinning the idea of any appointment.

First it had to be an appointment which in terms of its immediate and potential impact started to repay the work done at underage level in particular by the Dublin hurling community in this decade.

And, secondly, the idea of Dublin hurling being at a stage akin to Malcolm Gladwell's tipping point was emphasised again and again.

Dublin is just about at the moment of critical mass, the point where the momentum for long-term change is almost irresistible. The county needed a manager who, though he wouldn't have to bring All-Irelands in the next few years, could bring enough excitement , encouragement and experience from the big leagues to push everything over the hill and make a progressive hurling culture in Dublin a permanent thing.

When they met Daly the three wise men were surprised by the depth of his familiarity with the Dublin scene. He promised an answer by the weekend and it came on Saturday morning.

Daly's appointment brings to the job a man who is entirely believable when he talks about breakthroughs and about teams ceasing to be whipping boys.

The first half of Daly's career was spent in the same badlands that many Dublin players are accustomed to. From there he has been to the mountain top and has come back to tell the tale. Dublin hurling may just have got what it needs.

Daly has the pure hurling man's instinctive knowledge of the game, he has an infectious lack of respect for the blue bloods of hurling and he has the energy, honesty and youthfulness to make Dublin hurling better and better over the next two years.

The Leinster championship has certainly got what it needed. Box office gold. Daly will bring some spark to Dublin but everyone, including Colm Bonnar's Wexford and Joe Dooley's improving Offaly team, will bow to the presence of John McIntyre's star-studded Galway side. Joe Canning will be swimming in Leinster waters.

Look at the quarter finals. Galway play a hapless Laois side. Wexford renew the struggle with Offaly and Dublin face Antrim. Two good games and a chance to see Canning. Then consider the three winners going into the hat with Kilkenny for the semi-final draw. It's almost impossible to perceive a permutation that isn't exciting. The Leinster semi-finals should once again be the sort of double header that would two-thirds fill Croke Park.

Nobody would suggest that all that changing scenery in the province could alter Kilkenny's odds of dominance by the smallest fraction, but the province now has a clutch of teams whose progress will be compulsive watching.

For so long as the Cork County Board continue their policy of artfully playing with matches and then fiddling ostentatiously while Rome burns the Munster championship will be devalued and debauched.

Cork are needed by the game and by their province. The Cork County Board are doing hideous damage to our game and our sport while other counties earnestly look for the way to make the great leap forward.

The message that Anthony Daly brings to Dublin is the same message Clare hurling brought to the game in the mid-90s. Nothing is forever. Cork can't break the thread and bust up their greatest hurlers with such wanton disrespect as is being shown and then hope to be meaningful again at the click of a finger.

A county that wants to improve will improve it if has the patience to do it player by player, field by field, mini-league by mini-league. Cork, if they don't resolve the leadership crisis in their county board, could lose a decade at the top of the game. Nothing is forever. Counties can learn and fail and regroup and learn some more. Or they can build from the bottom upwards as Dublin have done.

The tipping point. It's a nice fit for where Dublin are at but it describes the broader world of hurling just now too.

It's only winter time but the buds of possibility are apparent everywhere and there is a faint whiff of revolution in the air again. Or is it romance?

Roll on summer.