Dublin 2-22 Clare 0-15 HIS FOCUS wavered for just a couple of moments but on such a day, Anthony Daly could certainly be forgiven. For the man who lifted the Liam MacCarthy cup twice for Clare, plotting the downfall of his native county was a task laced with emotion.
But as manager of an emerging Dublin outfit, this was business and Daly attended to it in a wholly efficient manner.
Afterwards, he visited the Clare dressingroom and consoled men he used to tog out along side, the likes of Alan Markham, Diarmuid McMahon and Gerry Quinn.
It wasn’t pleasant but the sheer enormity of his role had first hit him earlier in the day.
“I got a moment coming in on the bus,” Daly revealed.
He had spotted former Clare team-mate Tommy Guilfoyle, one of many familiar faces on the day. Enemies for just 70 minutes.
“I met Tommy coming in along and I thought in my own head: am I on the right bus coming in? It was only a couple of moments, that’s all. I was tuned in and I needed to be.
“It was hard to go down to the dressingroom, to see Alan Markham and Diarmuid and these guys, fellas I played with, Gerry Quinn. But look, if you enlist you must drill . . . I had to be strong for them (Dublin) today and that’s very important.”
At the finish, Dublin had beaten Clare by 13 points and moved forward to a meeting with Antrim next weekend.
Dublin, inspired by the attacking brilliance of All Star Alan McCrabbe and David “Dotsy” O’Callaghan, produced arguably their finest display under Daly.
But an alarming fade-out before and after the interval let Clare back in the game. Nine unanswered points had sent Dublin 0-13 to 0-4 clear before Clare rallied briefly before the break to cut the interval deficit to 0-7 to 0-14.
Six unanswered points from Clare after the restart brought them to within touching distance of Dublin and maddened Daly.
Just a few doors in Clarecastle separate him from Clare boss Ger O’Loughlin, a former club and county team-mate, and Daly knows what makes “Sparrow” tick. “The last thing we said before we went out after half-time was: ‘they’re going to come at us.’ I know Sparrow . . . and I knew there was going to be Doyler (Liam Doyle) and Danny Chaplin down there going bananas. We tried to warn fellas but our lads can tune out so easily and think the work is done.”
A stroke of luck handed the whip back to Dublin as Peter Kelly’s 45th minute shot went all the way into the net over the head of Donal Tuohy from 50 metres out.
Four unanswered points followed and Dublin were suddenly eight clear again. It was a day that showed Clare how far they have to travel before the boys who won last year’s All-Ireland Under-21 title become men. Their cause wasn’t helped by injuries to Pat Vaughan and Pat Donnellan.
“Pat Vaughan has a suspected broken ankle, or bad ligament damage anyway, he’s just gone off to the hospital. Patrick Donnellan seems to have some sort of neck injury, he’s gone to the hospital also but I think it’s just precautionary,” said O’Loughlin.
Clare will be okay too. Sparrow will see to that.
DUBLIN:G Maguire; N Corcoran, T Brady, O Gough; S Hiney (0-2), J Boland, P Kelly (1-1); J McCaffrey, M O'Brien (0-1); D O'Dwyer (0-1), L Rushe (0-1), S Durkin (0-1); P Carton, D O'Callaghan (0-6), A McCrabbe (0-8, two frees, one 65, two sideline). Subs:L Ryan for O'Dwyer (41), S Lambert (1-1) for Durkin (46), M Carton for P Carton (59), K Flynn for Rushe (68), S Ryan for O'Callaghan (69).
CLARE:D Tuohy; P Vaughan, C Dillon, C Cooney; B Bugler (0-1), D McMahon, P Donnellan; B O'Connell, D O'Donovan; S Collins (0-1), J Conlon (0-3), J Clancy (0-2); F Lynch (0-2), D Honan (0-1), C Ryan (0-3, one free, one 65). Subs:N O'Connell (0-2) for Vaughan (inj, 17), A Markham for Collins (26), G Quinn for Donnellan (inj, 48), D Barrett for Ryan (59), C O'Donovan for Conlon (70+2).
Referee:J Sexton (Cork).
