The former All-Ireland winner is not promising anything but has been through a similar situation with Clare, writes Tom Humphries
ANOTHER DAY, another Dublin manager launched into orbit on a platform of tea, sandwiches and questions in the little room in Parnell Park. Anthony Daly found his own way to the Dubs northside lair under his own steam for the first time. Having conquered the city traffic he sat and yakked happily through a mid-morning date with the media.
The first thing that struck anyone listening was that Daly is the perfect appointment for Pat Gilroy. Have the Dublin hurlers ever had a higher profile manager than the footballers? Daly is pure box office and his presence in Dublin and his loquacious way with the media will lift hurling and will suit the football management down to the ground.
Anthony Daly has never been less than excellent value with a tape recorder in front of him and sandwiched between a couple of happy men from the posse which nabbed him for the job he spoke honestly and bluntly about the challenges ahead. No blarney, no Barack even. Instead he wondered again and again what the players response to him would be.
He recited the astronomical odds at which Dublin are posted to win the All-Ireland. He joked that until very recently he was all in favour of Galway coming into Leinster but that now the scales had fallen from his eyes and he was against it. He spoke about what had brought him to this job, one which could make a difference to hurling not just in Dublin but to hurling in general.
"I suppose counties come looking for you every now and then and you have to ask yourself would it be right at the time for me to do this. I thought this was more attractive. I liked it with the idea of the young players coming through. And anyway with a few of our neighbouring counties down there there would be fierce rivalry. It could be tricky to manage but there would be no axe to grind with Dublin at all."
The Dublin County Board so far have been impressed with Daly's knowledge of the capital's hurling scene but Daly has enough quiet belief in himself that he didn't feel the need yesterday to overplay his hand in trying to impress.
"I'd know most of the players who played the last few championships but to say I'd know them, without their helmets on, that wouldn't be true. But even for my first Clare player meeting it was the same. I knew maybe 20 lads in the room but there was 15 or more I had no idea who they were. I would be a quick enough learner that way."
Not a shot has been fired or a sliotar pucked but there is a feeling of change blowing through Parnell Park. Pat Gilroy has promised Dublin clubs access to their own players and has expressed an open-mindedness on the issue of dual players. In a town where Conal Keaney, David Henry and Diarmuid Connolly would distinctly strengthen the hurlers they are lost right now to football. Daly was asked if he might reciprocate Gilroy's gesture of ecumenism.
"Yes, Pat has had something to say about the dual players and sure, listen, I have no problem with lads playing the odd league game with the footballers if we have nothing on and the commitment is there to hurling. (Pause.) That was a joke lads. (Cue laughter.) I didn't take the job on the basis of guarantees.
"Listen, back with Clare I used to take the lads to Croke Park on the Saturday before we would play there in a All-Ireland quarter or semi. The place would be packed and they would sit taking it in. That must be very attractive to any young fella. This is the greatest field sport in the world. I don't think football compares to be honest. Playing hurling in Croke Park on a huge day is what hurlers live for."
Dublin have been loitering just outside the top echelons of the game for some time now but have been busy stitching together a respectable blanket of decent teams in the underage and colleges grades. There is a feeling the talent is there to be playing at a higher level and that once that happens the impetus will solidify Dublin's new culture of hurling.
It's a lot of hope to rest on the shoulders of one young manager but Daly has come from a similar place in the hurling world to that which Dublin occupy now. And he lifted the MacCarthy Cup twice thereafter. For Dublin he is not certain yet as to what will be deemed success.
"I'm not so sure. Hopefully we will raise it a little. We will try to bring it up a level. There is a bunch of them coming together, young players who have had a bit of success. We have to create an atmosphere so that we feel that hurling is up there.
"We really have to see what the attitude is like from the players. How will they react to my training methods. Will they put it in or will some of them say 'look this is not what we are used to'. I can't say today what way things will pan out. I'm hopeful.
"What would success be for Dublin though? That is a tough question. I'm coming in not knowing the players and knowing there has been a bit of underage success. I have no magic wand. Vinnie Teehan (The former Offaly player and ex- Ballyboden coach, who was the first selector to be named to Daly's backroom team.) is somebody I wanted on board and I know what he brings straight away. We are 250 to 1 to win the All-Ireland. I'm not making excuses but lets face facts there. I would never hold back on saying what can be achieved but it depends on how players react.
"Where I see it all going now is getting over Antrim. On the sixth of June we play Antrim and that is the match to be won."
To that end he is looking for fanatics, young men who will put their lives on hold to achieve something in hurling. He did that years ago with a bunch of comrades slaving up and down a hill in Shannon. It was worth it.
"That's what Dublin maybe need now. A little bit of fanaticism and a little bit of thinking outside the box."
He comes in with high hopes but he comes into a vacuum. County teams can't train collectively until January. He discovered yesterday that three of his first-team players are in Australia until February.
It is frustrating?
"It is a disadvantage alright. You can have a few meetings, break them up and start them doing gym work. But (Brian) Cody would know his panel, (Liam) Sheedy would know his, Davy (Fitzgerald) would pretty much know his panel, the Clare lads have been off doing bonding and are back doing gym work. We'll have to wait till January, but sure look at it this way, maybe they would get burned out.
As to how he will commute to and forth he is unsure yet. He reckons flying first class is the quickest way and swears that top of the list in his letter to Santa is a sat nav. He shook his head earnestly. "That M50 is as bad as they make it out to be isn't it?"
Still his tenure got off to a flying start within hours of his first press conference. Dublin South Colleges beat Kilkenny CBS in Carlow to win the Leinster colleges league. A substantial achievement to launch the new era.
