Updated at 11.52

DUBLIN HURLER DANNY Sutcliffe is confident the team can continue to progress despite the recent departure of coach Anthony Daly.

The resignation of Daly, who guided the team to a 2013 Leinster SHC final win, was announced earlier in the month, after a disappointing campaign this year, yet Sutcliffe remains optimistic about the team’s future.

“We have so much coming through. On that point, if you were to go a step back from Anthony Daly, the minors coming through who are 17 and 18 playing football and hurling, they’re looking, going: ‘will I play hurling or will I go play football?’

“Some of them do have that choice, they’re so good. Obviously, if there is an attraction there, it generally pulls young lads towards us. If we’re not going well, they will just go the other side.

“But I think we are. When we’re going well…I know we lack a bit of that consistency this year but when we’re going well, we can beat anyone.

“We fear no one as well. So it’s a confident panel. There’s young lads coming through, even from my own club, you see Fionn Ó Riain, there are serious hurlers coming through.

“There are definitely hurlers there that can match anyone in the country. It’s just about getting the right man to see if he can pull us all together really.”

Yet despite being hopeful, Sutcliffe is under no illusions as to how tough it will be to find a replacement for Daly, while confirming that he is in the dark over the identity of that man.

“My guess is as good as yours. I haven’t heard anything yet. You only realise how good of a job Anthony has done when he is gone and how much he has brought us on. You are only playing for a few years and to take a step back would be catastrophic anyway.

“The man coming in, he’ll have the commitment and the work-rate of the players. That’s there for them anyway. We are just dying to get someone and get started and planning for the year ahead. We’re nearly finished now, it’s nearly back to pre-season. There’s nothing yet, it’s something you can’t rush either.”

He also acknowledges that there is no obvious replacement for Daly within the current coaching staff.

“I wish there was a Jim Gavin there who had won everything at underage level that you could give it to, but I suppose there really isn’t. Anthony Daly has been there and won All-Irelands and I think that’s something we need from the next candidate that he has that experience from either managing or playing to guide us there. That’s what you are looking for. It’s either Anthony Daly or higher.

“You can’t really take a step back, the work that has been put in at ground level by the county board and the work Anthony put in, you couldn’t justify going a step back.

“I owe everything nearly to him… So I’m kind of biased. But I’m looking to seeing if there’s someone similar to him and the way he works.

“But someone is going to come in with their own system and you’re going to have to adapt to that and give them your time, give them your commitment and that’s what I’ll be doing.”

Yet for all Daly achieved, Sutcliffe suggests his departure was ultimately for the best.

“I suppose we mutually felt that he had taken us as far as he could. You’re wondering if he wanted to go again and we were wondering if we wanted him to go again.

“It didn’t matter whether we wanted him to leave or he wanted to leave, it’s just that… [it was] six years and maybe just a fresh start [was needed]. I think that’s what we all realised.

“People underestimate how grateful we were to him and what he had done for us. The three hour round trip he did for us… And that’s before you get to training.

“The time he put into it and… I remember I used to watch him on TV, we can only ever be grateful. I wouldn’t be there doing half as good… Not after the summer I had, but I got an All Star the year before and I wouldn’t have dreamed of that only for him.”

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