In today’s Hospital Pass, we look at wild allegations against Tyrone’s Ryan McMenamin, and consider poor old Waterford’s 600-mile journey to Dublin and back and Dublin and back.
You can accuse Ryan “Ricey” McMenamin of all sorts of things, and most of them would probably be true, but never, ever say that he fish-hooked an opponent.
The allegations surfaced in the morning newspapers, with claims that the Tyrone defender could face a retrospective suspension following a spat with Steven “Stevie” McDonnell during the weekend’s All-Ireland qualifier.
We haven’t seen any video evidence, but it would surprise us if Ricey was guilty of something like that, for no other reason than the fact it would be a carbon-copy of an offence by Kerry’s Paul Galvin last year, and if there’s one thing Tyrone footballers will not do, it’s copy Kerry.
He told hoganstand.com today, “There was simply no such incident in the game. There was some pushing and shoving with Steven McDonnell, between each other, but nothing more. I am not going to accept people just saying things like this.”
For what it’s worth, we don’t think Ricey would fish-hook anyone.
Eye-gouging, now. That’s a different story*.
Culchies draw the short straw
Moving swiftly along, to the news of Waterford’s consternation that their minor and senior sides will be in action on consecutive weekends at Croke Park next month.
The minor semi-final sees Waterford take on Dublin – and as both counties are also in the last four of the senior championship, it came down to a proverbial toss of a coin to decide whether the minor game would be played as the curtain-raiser to the Dublin-Tipperary semi or the one involving Waterford and Kilkenny a week later.
And it seems the GAA fixtures committee kept on tossing that coin until it came down on the side they wanted: namely, the side which allows both Dublin sides to play at Croker on the same day.
Displaying a bewildering lack of knowledge of the inner workings of the GAA, Waterford county board chairman Tom Cunningham said, “My initial reaction is disbelief. Waterford supporters have to travel 150 miles each way to Croke Park and in the current financial climate, it’s not fair to ask them to go to Dublin two weekends in a row.
“Waterford supporters are very angry but there’s nothing we can do.”
Indeed, there’s nothing they can do, short of failing to qualify for the Croke Park All-Ireland series in the first place.
But cash-strapped Waterford supporters should spare a thought for Leitrim. They’d love to have the chance to go to Croke Park twice in the same decade, never mind the same week.
* Only joking, Ricey.
