This Saturday’s All-Ireland hurling quarter-final on the face of it looks obvious. In the past 75 years, Dublin have reached just three All-Ireland semi-finals – as well as going straight to the All-Ireland twice, in 1952 and ‘61 – and only once have they been required to win a quarter-final.
Twelve years ago, in 2011, they defeated Limerick to progress. In 2013, the county reached the last four as Leinster champions, a first title in 52 years.
This time around, having negotiated the provincial round robin for the second time – the first ended in calamity with defeat by the 2019 McDonagh Cup winners Laois, the only time this has happened in four years of the format – they face Munster finalists Clare. It’s a very unusual rivalry in that the counties’ paths never crossed once in an All-Ireland championship in the 20th century.
From the time Dublin defeated Clare in the 1889 All-Ireland it took another 113 years and the advent of the hurling qualifiers in 2002 before they met again.
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That triggered greater familiarity and later that decade during the GAA’s first experiment with round-robin fixtures – in the qualifiers rather than the provincial championships – the counties found themselves drawn together for two successive years, 2005 and ‘06, both of which were won well by Clare.
The biggest link between the counties was Clare’s All-Ireland winning captain, Anthony Daly, who was manager of his county in those years but took over Dublin at the end of the decade.
That combination landed Dublin’s only championship win in the fixture since 1889. In a 2010 qualifier, they won well at Croke Park by 12 points but the effect was undermined when a week later they were surprised by Antrim, a defeat that made Daly reconsider his position.
It was to everyone’s advantage that he stayed and within a year, he had led them to a first national league title in 73 years.
A year later though, Clare threw up another road block with an unexpected defeat of Dublin in the qualifiers. Star turn on the evening was a teenage Tony Kelly, making his debut and firing in the only goal from a free.
After that 2012 defeat, however, Daly issued what sounds like a prophecy.
“Just been in the dressing room there,” he said after visiting Clare. “They are young, very young. Maybe I’m too old but they are a young team. There is a great future for them there.
“Obviously John Conlon is a very good player. Fellas like that, young Honan and Conor McGrath, these are as good guys as what’s in the country so if they get chances ... young Kelly stood up to the 21, his first match, and stuck it in the back of the net. That’s the talent he is.”
A year later Clare were All-Ireland champions and Dublin will face Kelly and Conlon again on Saturday.
Again luckily, Daly stayed on and arguably the pinnacle of his management tenure saw Dublin crowned Leinster champions in 2013 for the first time since 1961.
