In today’s Hospital Pass we take a look at two of the biggest talking points from yesterday’s action at Semple Stadium.
Tipperary hurling people were probably half-expecting Lar Corbett to be back in the headlines today, but surely not in the way things turned out at Semple Stadium.
Lar had returned to the Tipp panel a few weeks back after drawing a line from his workplace and calling “Time!” on his retirement.
He was deemed not to be fit enough to take his place on the panel for Sunday’s Munster championship opener against Limerick, however, and instead spent the day as one of Tipp’s designated water-boys and hurley-handlers.
But in a not-so-rare instance of pernickety officialdom in the GAA – is the word ‘pernickety’ ever used in connection with anything else but GAA officials? – Lar instead found himself at the centre of a bit of a storm.
A water storm.
The crime? Lar’s “encroachment” – another great GAA word – on the field of play on several occasions to give a glug of water to his erstwhile teammates. On one of the hottest days of the year.
They should throw the book at him.
Kerry’s very own Triggs
Moving from one Munster controversy to another, but staying, rather lazily, at Semple Stadium, we’re intrigued by the strange case of Kieran Donaghy’s absence from the Kerry team for Sunday’s unconvincing-but-never-in-doubt win over Tipp in the Thurles curtain-raiser.
Such are Kerry’s riches that 2006 Footballer of the Year Donaghy replaced 2010 Footballer of the Year Paul Galvin ten minutes into the second half.
Tipperary were hanging onto the arse of Kerry’s trousers (Irish men have never worn shirt-tails, have we?) at the time, and Donaghy helped to steady a ship that never really looked like taking on much water in the first place.
Whether he’s done enough to warrant a place in the team against Cork in two weeks’ time would seem to depend on his attitude as much as anything else.
Because, after talk that a trip to the Champions League final last week had cost him his place in Jack O’Connor’s team, it was reported this morning that the Munich bother was just one in a series of episodes that raised the hackles of his manager.
During the course of the Irish Examiner water-cooler chat, the paper’s sports editor Tony Leen suggested that Donaghy was late for a Kerry A v Kerry B training match because he was out and about in Tralee trying to locate his missing dog.
Maybe Jacko shouldn’t be so hard on him – Donaghy’s loyalty to his mutt is still a form of loyalty, surely one trait every inter-county manager wants from his star footballers.
But Jacko wasn’t convinced. So if Kerry have another A v B game in training this week, it’ll be interesting to see which side of the divide Donaghy finds himself on.
