O’CARROLL HURLING EXIT HINTS AT DUBLIN RETURN
SPECULATION on Rory O’Carroll’s return to the Dublin senior football panel hardened yesterday after it emerged he has opted out of playing hurling for his club. Kilmacud Crokes hurling manager Anthony Daly confirmed that O’Carroll had informed him of his wish to excuse himself from the panel this month. As a result, O’Carroll was ruled out of last night’s county SHC clash with O’Toole’s, having lined out with the club’s footballers last weekend against Ballymun. The two-time All-Star winner recently returned from a three-year stint in New Zealand and speculation mounted that he could be recalled to the county panel by Jim Gavin who saw his side frequently exposed in defence during the Allianz League campaign. ‘He trained twice and he played a League game and then he decided, for the April games anyway, he wasn’t going to be able to play both,’ said Daly at the launch of the Renault World Games yesterday. ‘I don’t know, maybe Jim was on the phone. I have no idea but if I was Jim I’d be on the phone having watched him the other evening playing football. ‘I don’t know too much about the football but I’d be having Rory O’Carroll anyway,’ added Daly. The Clare legend also pleaded with supporters not to expect too much from returning star Shane O’Donnell, who is likely to feature for the Banner County in next month’s opening round Munster Championship match against Waterford. O’Donnell missed Clare’s entire League campaign after securing a scholarship to study at Harvard University. ‘It must have been very hard for him to hurl in Boston,’ insisted Daly, who also managed the Banner from 2004 to 2006. ‘In my time, a similar thing occurred with Tony Griffin who was in college in Canada. I flew him home for four League games, through London on a Thursday and he’d play and fly back out on a Sunday night to London and then Newfoundland.
‘He did that for two years because I just felt it was crucial, to keep his eye in. ‘The big thing I’d be worried about is while Shane has been working on a programme while he was in Boston, when you come back home, it is another step up. ‘You’d just be worried about an injury over the next couple of weeks because it’s going to be the big test of the body and where he’s at.’ And Daly also believes that expectations around O’Donnell have to be seasoned with reality, claiming that some supporters still believe he should replicate his 2013 All-Ireland final replay form every time he goes out on the pitch. ‘There are fellas who wouldn’t know their hurling, with due respect, and they thought this 3-3 should be coming the whole time. ‘That doesn’t happen at this level. That was a freakish day. ‘Shane’s work rate, his ball retention when it goes up to him and his willingness to fight for it, is second to none.’