Though he admits the battle to fend off the allure of the Dublin footballers was tough during his six years as Dublin hurling manager, something else annoyed Anthony Daly even more - fans born and bred in the capital who supported another county in the small ball.
Speaking on this week's Hurling Debate, in association with Centra, Daly illustrated his annoyance with reference to a conversation he once had with the Irish footballer Niall Quinn. Though Quinn hurled with the Dublin minors, he still holds an affection for the Tipp hurlers due to his father having played for the Premier County.
What bugged me when I was in Dublin was the amount of Dublin born and reared people who supported Clare in hurling, Tipp in hurling, Waterford in hurling but they supported the Dublin footballers.
I remember having this conversation with Niall Quinn one night and Niall telling me 'I kinda shout for Tipp in the hurling'. Sure I says 'you hurled with Dublin in the All-Ireland semi-final'. 'Oh, no, no, I support Dublin as well like,' he said. Obviously, his father was a late, great massive star with Tipp.
That bugged me a lot. I just felt that Dublin hurling needed their own culture; everyone growing up saying, 'my father was from Tipp but I'm a Dublin man, I support the Dublin hurlers'.
Despite losing numerous players to the Dublin senior football panel, Daly says his set-up had some victories in convincing players to hurl for Dublin rather than play football.
It was tough. We had a lot of victories as well. The Schuttes, Danny Sutcliffe - they would have looked for him - Rushy [Liam Rushe] would have been looked for by the footballers. I think David Treacy was even mentioned at one stage, I don't know where that came out of.
Conal [Keaney] coming back was a huge catalyst. That meant so much to the lads that Conal would say 'I always loved hurling more'. It was very hard on Conal - he got the league medal in 2011 - but I remember texting him the night of the 2011 football final and telling him, 'I'm thinking of you tonight, kid'. It must have been a very hard night for him because he'd given so much to the football and they'd won it.
Looking back now, Daly regrets not fighting harder for the allegiance of players such as Eric Lowndes, Cormac Costello and Ciaran Kilkenny.
Shay Boland's really good minor team where you had Eric [Lowndes] and Cormac [Costello] and Ciaran Kilkenny - to lose the three of them [was a blow]. I suppose at the time, Emmet O'Conghaile was another one we were looking for.
Maybe I didn't go hard enough at the time. That would be a little regret that I should have fought harder. I felt that they had to want to play hurling for Dublin - there was a bit of a traditionalist in me that overpowered me at the time. If I had my time over, maybe I should have lived outside their doors for a few nights.
You can watch Daly talk about his annoyance with supporters and losing players to the Dublin footballers at the 43:30 mark below.
Picture credit: Stephen McCarthy / SPORTSFILE
