Banner dug a bit deeper – Daly

FROM the moment the qualifier draw paired Dublin against Clare, it was always going to be a tough evening for Anthony Daly.
A Clareman through and through, he captained the county to provincial and All-Ireland glory in the latter half of the ’90s and then went on to manage Clare.
In charge of Dublin for the past few years, he led the Leinster side to league honours last year. There were high hopes throughout the hurling world that Dublin would make further strides in 2012 but their results have been poor.
They needed a win on Saturday evening to prolong their season and atone somewhat for the disappointments of league relegation and a hammering from Kilkenny in the Leinster semi-final.
Clearly the Clarecastle man was disappointed with his side’s defeat but he paid due tribute to Clare.
“It was a Cusack Park night that I have been lucky enough to have been part of sometimes. I was at the other end of it tonight. Fair play to Clare, you couldn’t take it away from them for a finish. They all seemed to dig a bit deeper. They won great ball and they all did that bit extra when they were down to 14 men. Fair play to them.
“Hopefully now they can go on and build on that. They have some fine young players and you saw some of the younger ones there. I have just been in the dressing room. They have a young team and there is a great future for them there.
“Look at their year. They haven’t done a whole pile wrong. Their main target was to get out of Division 1B and they gave Kilkenny one of the better games earlier in the year,” he went on.
“They probably should have won the Waterford game given the chances they missed. They could have been in a Munster final just as easy and we could have been in Dungarvan tonight. It’s a disappointing night for us but it’s a great night for Clare, obviously. They have a bright future,” said the Dublin boss.
Asked about his future, he refused to make any decision at this time. “When I came into this job I didn’t know whether I’d be one year or two years. I met the lads in Killaloe four years ago and they asked me if I’d have a go. I wasn’t sure if this would be the case that there would be a night like this against Clare with 12,000 or 15,000 in the park.
“I have never made decisions like that on the night of the game when you are all emotional. There is plenty of time and there are more than me involved in that decision. There is plenty of time,” he replied.
He acknowledged, “It’s been a very disappointing year, no doubt about it. Relegated from the league and to lose the first round of the qualifier, there is no other way to describe it. Maybe a bit of the hype of last year got us a bit.
“I couldn’t have asked for any more from the players in terms of effort and training. They couldn’t have given any more. We could analyse it for the night but there is no way around it, it’s been a disappointing season.
“In fairness to the likes of Pat Donnellan and Bugler, they really stood tall for Clare tonight. They caught great balls. Conlon is a very good player, Honan and Conor McGrath also. They are as good as what’s in the country. Kelly stood up to the 21 in his first match.
“We should have been able to be mature enough to take our points and plug away but for some reason we didn’t and fair play to Clare,” he concluded.