DALY’S BACK TO INSTIL DISCIPLINE
ANTHONY DALY is ‘99 per cent’ certain to remain as Dublin hurling manager — but some of his players will be told to rein in their public profiles. Dublin County Board chairman Andy Kettle broke the good news that the Clare man has all but been persuaded to stay on for a fifth season. But there was an intriguing addendum to the news with Kettle insisting that change is likely around the panel. He said this could be change to the management team as well as the playing panel and curiously stated that players will be asked to cut back on their general dealings with the public. Kettle said that Daly ‘does feel that maybe Dublin lost their way a little bit and the mind went away from hurling onto other matters’ in 2012. Asked to elaborate, Kettle continued: ‘Well, like profiles, and twitters and social media. And even media in general. I wouldn’t say there’ll be a crackdown as such, what I’d say is that it may be managed a little better.’ Dublin came into 2012 on a high after making history on two counts, firstly by winning the Allianz League title and then by qualifying for the All-Ireland semifinals. But this year was a write off with relegation to Division 1B of the League followed by defeats to Kilkenny in the Leinster championship and then Daly’s native Clare in the qualifiers. Kettle suggested that if Dublin were regarded as a top-four team last year, they are now only in the top seven or eight but he’s optimistic Daly can turn things around. ‘Anthony is about 99 per cent certain to come back on board,’ he said. ‘Anthony would have had a lot of enthusiasm himself and particularly after the game in Cusack Park against his own county. It was probably not the one he wanted to go out on and it was probably an advantage to me to be able to remind him that he mightn’t want to go out on that note.’