Dublin hurling manager Anthony Daly insists that his side are not under pressure to further up their game, after their footballing counterparts claimed the All-Ireland title in 2011.
Daly’s Dubs continued a consistent progression by winning the 2011 Allianz Hurling League and reaching an All-Ireland semi-final, but the small ball game eventually again came second fiddle to football in the capital when Pat Gilroy’s men came from behind to beat Kerry in the Sam Maguire decider.
With champions Kilkenny and Dublin’s 2011 conquerors Tipperary again the favoured teams for Liam McCarthy in 2012, Daly’s side will have to outperform last year again to get further. But the manager says what happened with the footballers will be a help, not a hindrance, to his side as it showed the difference between champions and nearly men.
"I wouldn’t say it has anything to do with pressure,” the Clare native was quoted as saying by the Irish Examiner.
“The footballers winning the All-Ireland was good for us, nothing else. After winning the league and only losing to Tipperary by four points in the All-Ireland semi-final the boys would have been getting great praise - ‘well done, mighty men, great year' and all that.
"When the footballers won though, they saw the absolute joy around the city, the buzz, so they know the difference now between winning and getting close.
"We came up short but if the footballers hadn’t won, the danger was there that the boys might have been clapping themselves on the back – that’s not going to happen now.
"You have to have new targets, you can’t stand still in this game or you’re lost. It’s all about winning the All-Ireland, about winning the Leinster championship, and that’s the goal this year again, to break new ground.”