WHAT IF ... the Dublin footballers had fallen to Antrim? More to the point, what if they had led Antrim by six points with 20 minutes remaining -- and still conspired to lose?

You can guess the answer: you'd have 'Gilroy for the axe!' headlines in all the tabloids while the 'respectable' broadsheets might do it the French way instead, à la "Gilroy for the guillotine, peut-être?"

Different words, same message. Pat Gilroy would be under unfathomable pressure to justify the long-term merits of his team-rebuilding job if the short-term consequences were a disastrous championship exit to the unfashionable Saffrons.

DIFFERENT

It's a slightly different story for Anthony Daly. The back page headline in yesterday's Herald proclaimed: "Don't Go!" Curve Ball immediately wondered why the Hothouse Flowers had trespassed their way onto the sports pages, and we waited for a sub-head along the lines of "Don't leave me now, now, now. While the sun smiles, stick around and laugh a while."

Instead, we had "Dublin county board's plea to hurling boss Daly" along with quotes from chairman Gerry Harrington telling us: "Anthony has all the time in the world to make up his mind but please God, his response will be positive ... we would be doing everything in our power to convince him to stay."

Our own fervent hope is that Daly does hang around for year three of the revolution, revolting and all as the outcome was against Antrim last Saturday. He has been a breath of fresh air for hurling in the capital, with significant championship landmarks along the way -- beating Wexford 13 months ago and Clare 11 days ago; reaching a first Leinster final in 18 years; pushing Kilkenny in said final to within six points.

But there have been crushing setbacks along the way, too. Last year's quarter-final defeat was a glorious opportunity lost -- even more so in the context of Limerick's subsequent implosion against Tipperary and resultant civil war.

This year has been a stuttering affair, interspersed with the occasional flicker of promise (Tipp last February, Clare this month). In fairness, after some initially wild oscillations, the second half of the league included a run of reasonably consistent performances against the heavyweight likes of Kilkenny, Cork and Galway where they did most things right but lacked sufficient killer instinct to turn those near-misses into wins.

The championship, though, has been a struggle -- both in day-one victory over Laois and more especially the 19-point collapse to Kilkenny. With some tinkering of structure and personnel, Dublin looked to have turned the corner against Clare only to run straight into a cul-de-sac last Saturday.

Here's the truly painful bit: Daly's men started in neutral and still found themselves six up after 50 minutes. Even Antrim's commendable comeback was facilitated by Dublin's abject failure to retain possession in the half-forward line (a recurring theme of 2010) and compounded by substitutions that, with the benefit of 20-20 hindsight, were seen to backfire badly.

"They'd break your heart," texted one Dublin hurling devotee in the Saturday night aftershock.

MISTAKE

Did the players get complacent? Quite likely. Did management? Well, Daly himself has admitted they "probably made a mistake or two on the line" while stressing that all substitutions involve "a bit of a gamble" and clarifying that David O'Callaghan's replacement (a strange decision from the stand) stemmed from injury, not tactics.

Briefly, back to the footballers. It's entirely conceivable that if Pat Gilroy had overseen the surrender of a six-point lead against lower-ranking opponents, there would be a hue and cry. And the primary reason would be that the Dublin footballers, for all their self-evident problems beyond the August Bank Holiday Rubicon, are still perceived as among the foremost challengers to the Kerry/Tyrone/Cork elite.

Dublin hurlers, for all their progress in recent seasons, are seen as a step below that -- and a chasm adrift of Kilkenny. They remain firmly off-Broadway.

For them to make the leap to box office, we believe Daly must stay. He has a hands-on role with the current U21s, who have conquered Leinster and now have their sights set higher still. Several of them are already established seniors but, if the charismatic Clare man does stay, expect further regeneration from this talented crop.

The more senior likes of Gary Maguire, Joey Boland (our standout Dub in 2010) and Johnny McCaffrey have upped their game this season and the challenge now is for several more colleagues to do likewise in 2011.

Otherwise, the capital's small revolution may end up with all the explosive potential of a damp squib.

- Frank Roche