Former Clare hurler and manager Anthony Daly spoke on Off the Ball about his newly released book ‘Dalo: The autobiography.’
He spoke about how he ahad been approached to write an autobiography in 2001, but felt that he more to achieve first:
“I nearly went with it... I’d a notion of going back to hurling and felt it wasn’t right.”
As someone who often receives sports books for Christmas, he is well aware of their usual shortcomings, and was determined to make it more substantial:
“I wanted to keep it as real and as honest as I could.”
In the book, Daly touches on personal issues which have affected him over the years, including growing up with only one parent.
Turning to his playing career, Daly spoke about his experience under Ger Loughnane’s renewed Clare team:
“When I joined the panel, the seniors were no-hopers.
“Eventually lads like Brian Lohan, Conor Clancy came along... these lads weren’t here to make numbers.”
The 1995 Munster Finals against Limerick stand out, as Clare had suffered embarrassing losses in the previous two finals. Believing that Limerick would take a victory for granted, they “felt going down to this Munster final that things had to be different,” which they certainly were, with Clare brushing aside their opponents and eventually marching on to an All-Ireland title.
When he went on to manage Dublin, Daly’s team got off to an auspicious start with a Leinster Finals appearance in 2009. Though he was tempted to give up the reigns after losing to outsiders Antrim in 2010, he tried to look at the positives:
What’s forgotten that year Antrim beat us... is that we had beaten Clare, which was the first time Dublin had beaten a Munster team since the 60s.But Antrim were well organised and gave a good account of themselves in the quarter finals.”
His perseverance paid off with the Leinster Senior Championship win in 2013, their first hurling title in 52 years:
It’s no coincidence that we won the league... Keanie coming back. Conall too was a massive part of that
Daly has no set plans for the future jsut yet, and isn’t sure whether it will involve training greyhounds or pulling pints, but he’ll not be abandoning hurling just yet:
“I don’t know what the future brings.
“Hurling is a part of me...I’ll be involved with some team in some way.”
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