IT CAN only be assumed that Anthony Daly will have cheered up a little last night when word came through that Wexford were up next – rather than Kilkenny or Galway – because he didn’t have much to smile about in the immediate aftermath of Dublin’s disposal of Antrim.
“It was a win,” started Daly. “But a poor enough win. We didn’t play well. And made heavy going of it all the way through. It was always going to be a hard one to handle, and maybe some of the lads didn’t handle it so well.
“We thought they were fairly right, but looking at a few of them this morning they weren’t maybe as focused as they should have been.
“But it’s a learning process. We were a point up at half-time, but didn’t deserve to be a point up. If we were five or six down at half-time it would have been a fair reflection.
“We just asked fellas to calm down, start winning their own positions, because positions weren’t easily handled out there. There were a lot of backs at the other end.”
Dublin’s poor finishing at least gives Daly something to work on ahead of the semi-final – perhaps with a visit to an archery range: “We’d some shocking wides,” he admitted, “and they did too. It wasn’t for want of shooting practice anyway. We’ve done loads of it.
“I don’t know why you shoot wides, but maybe again it was a bit of the occasion, fellas rushing things and that. Maybe it is a good sign to have 14 wides in the second half. If we can work on those the next day, still create as many opportunities, and try to improve on it.
“But sure we got there in the end, and I’m sure we’ll be underdogs now the next day, and we’ll be a bit more relaxed because of that. But we’ll have to sit down first and evaluate this. Because there were lots and lots of mistakes in it. But we’d love to get into a Leinster final, because the longer these guys are it the more they’ll learn.”
Antrim joint manager Terence “Sambo” McNaughton had no excuse for the poor showing of his team: “Just very disappointed,” he explained. “We only really hurled for 15 minutes in the first half, took a long time to settle.
“Then we came out and just couldn’t get the ball into our forwards fast enough, and were losing breaking ball around the middle of the field. We just couldn’t win a ball.
“The wind too was whirling the whole time. With you one minute and against you the next. But I don’t think that had a whole lot to do with the result either.
“Dublin dominated the second half, and we were chasing the game the whole time. I won’t knock the players, because I genuinely believe they tried their heart out, but sometimes you’re not good enough. That’s the bottom line.”
