STANDING OUT FROM THE CROWD
Daly sees champions Treaty in front of hurling’s chasing pack
THE intrigue of last year’s hurling Championship was in the slim margins between the teams.
Limerick, who couldn’t reach the Munster final, won the All-ireland final by a point. Extra-time was required in both semi-finals and a replay in one of them.
Clare were a width of a post from being eliminated in Munster, while the same incident could have revitalised Tipperary’s season had it worked out differently.
Dublin narrowly lost three games that they had led in the 70th minute.
In the meantime, however, Limerick appear to have gone at least a step ahead after storming to the League title though, oddly, some bookies still have injury-hit Galway as favourites for the All-ireland.
Former Clare captain and manager Anthony Daly spent three years as head of Limerick’s underage academy and sees no obvious chink in the team and, particularly, the panel that John Kiely has built.
“You would say Limerick look ahead of the posse at the minute,” says Daly.
“This time last year we all said Galway were ahead of the posse, the year before we said Tipperary were ahead of the posse so that’ll be interesting but the age dynamic and the rhetoric from them I would say is very positive and I’d say the management there is very strong as well.
“If a fella wants to have a pint I’d say he can have a pint and no more s***e but if he’s turning up for training and not ready to go and take on Aaron Gillane, he’s out the gap and there’s someone else ready to step into the 26 out of their 36 or 37. That polices itself when you’ve a squad like that.
“He seems to have found somebody for every line. Will Peter Casey start? And how good was Peter Casey in the League, like? It’s a nice headache.
“Every manager wants that absolute fighting with your selectors, ‘I think he’s going better, I think he’s going better, we’ll give him the nod, we mightn’t give Graeme Mulcahy the nod, we mightn’t give Seamus Flanagan the nod’.
“Jesus, what kind of a sub have you coming on? You’ve a beast coming on who’s anxious to show you. That’s the dream thing at county level.”
While there’s no great mystique about Limerick, question marks hang over all of their provincial rivals to varying degrees with the Munster Championship getting underway three weeks tomorrow.
Daly added: “They’re at it and we can say that for sure. Can we say it about the other four in Munster? I’m not sure.
“Waterford looked very good up to the League final. Limerick sort of dismantled them in the League final.
“Fine lines again in Munster but Limerick do look to be gone ahead of the fine lines, it’d be fair to say.
“We’re looking at it that way in terms of a bond and way of playing where we don’t really know with everyone else.
“What way are Tipp going to play? What way are Clare going to play? I’m not certain. The boys are in their third year with Clare, they’ll have an idea but if John Conlon is not there, Conor Cleary’s not there, we know that, Jamie Shanahan’s not there, so who goes five and six? I can’t answer that now.”