Randal Óg's shining star Seán Daly looking to keep improving

Seán Daly has long been used to battling against the odds and he ends 2023 as the first player from Randal Óg to win an All-Ireland medal.

Having been a part of Ben O’Connor’s squad that went all the way at U20 level this year, Daly is keen to continue his progress as the Fitzgibbon Cup comes into view.

A second-year agricultural science student, Daly’s compact stature and the fact he came from a small rural club might have counted against him as he worked his way through under-age, but he persevered through the Rebel Óg development squad system.

“I would have been involved from U13 up to U16,” he says, “but I was on the C and B teams, I was never close to the A team.

“I didn’t make the minor panel but I was involved last year [2022] with the U20s as an extended squad member. This year was the first year I was properly on it.

“I was always a bit smaller than the rest of them and it took a few years to physically develop and get up to that level.

“By the time I was 19 or 20, I was a lot closer to fellas than I had been when I was 16 or 17.”

Daly never felt that lining out for Sam Maguires – the under-age Dunmanway amalgamation of Randals and Dohenys – was an impediment.

“I know that lads from bigger clubs might have something of an advantage in that they’re playing at higher levels in the under-age competitions.

“When I was playing for Sam Maguires, we had great coaches guiding us. Then, with Randal Óg, I was lucky to have people like Ger Collins, so the training that we got was as good as we could have got.”

In addition, while he might have been giving something away in terms of size, he made sure to compensate.

“I would have put a lot of emphasis on skills development when I was underage,” he says.

“My father Colman would have said to me that all I can do is work with what I have.

“Then, by the time I got the chance, I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t going to take it for granted, so I suppose it probably stood to me in the long run, not having things come to me easily.”

Attend to UCC, where so many hurlers have been nurtured and then come to prominence, certainly helped, too.

“It’s a fantastic environment to be in,” Daly says.

“It’s a choice as to whether you want to be in there or not and every fella is playing because they really want to.

“They’re all keen to push themselves on – nobody is forcing them to play when they get to college and they’re all big boys inside there. If you want to stay at home and sit on the couch, you can!

“Being with fellas who have the same level of being driven is brilliant to be part of. They drive you on and they’re always pushing you to be better.”

It was a similar situation for Daly. in the U20 set-up under O’Connor, Ronan Curran, Anthony Nash, Terence McCarthy and Ger O’Regan.

“They were brilliant,” he says.

“Any questions that you’d have about what you were doing right or what you were doing wrong, they’d tell you straightaway. They brought you on with every game, which was a big help.”

And every game saw a large Ballinacarriga contingent present, giving Daly loud and faithful support.

“The support has been unbelievable,” he says, “even well before the All-Ireland final.

“For every game this year, the games with Cork or for UCC in the Fitzgibbon Cup were in Cork city or further away and, every time, there’d be 20 or 30 fellas from Ballinacarriga, coming to watch.

“It was incredible to see and it was incredible to be part of it that way, to have the support behind you, knowing that you have that kind of backing.

“It was only afterwards when you look back at it that it’s nice to think that maybe there are some young fellas, pucking out in the back garden and hoping to play for Cork, which is what I was doing at that age.

“If it does make a small help to some fella, it’s a good thing.”