Selection to haunt sheepish Babs for donkeys' years
Friday August 03 2007
TIPPERARY boss Babs Keating was in bullish mood on Monday following his team's exit from the championship last weekend.
Questions have been raised all year about just how happy his Tipp campers are. Midfielder Colin Morrissey defected to the footballers, All Star Philip Maher and his defence colleague Paul Ormonde both walked away, captain Benny Dunne has been put in more positions than a sex worker and three-time All Star goalkeeper Brendan Cummins was dropped for the Munster SHC replay against Limerick, and has not figured since. Then there is Eoin Kelly. The five-time All Star - arguably the best hurler in the country - was not fit enough to start against Wexford, but miraculously recovered in time to be brought on after 26 minutes.
Unsurprisingly, fans rounded on Keating in the wake of the defeat but as everyone knows, Babs is faultless to a fault. He shot from the lip, and without a hint of irony, argued: "The one thing on my record is that nobody ever proved me wrong."
Well, the defeat did not vindicate him, but even so, when it comes to making wrong calls, Babs has got classic form.
"You can't win derbies with donkeys." - An asinine Babs talks down the Cork team ahead of the 1990 Munster final against Tipp. His side lost and the donkeys went on to win the All-Ireland.
"Sheep in a heap" - In 1998, Babs castigated his own Offaly players following a Leinster final defeat to Kilkenny. Babs resigned, and the sheep went on to win the All-Ireland.
Tipp fans believe that perhaps Babs should now make the right call and jump before he's pushed.
Anti-Cork bias is alive and well
THEY might be hard on the face of it, but bore a little deeper and it turns out that Cork are sensitive skins.
The Rebels cried anti-Cork bias after being denied a quarter-final win by a dodgy reffing decision last Sunday. They roared it when told their footballers are playing tomorrow, while their hurlers take the field on Sunday, necessitating a weekend stay in Dublin. And they shouted it last Sunday when the Limerick and Clare fans in Croker all cheered on Waterford.
However, their claims have been backed up by an unusual source - the Central Statistics Office. According to recently-released figures from the 2006 census, 77 per cent of people who live in Cork were born there. But the figures also mean that only two out of 10 people living in Ireland's second city are not born-and-bred Corkonians. Turns out the Rebels have a point - people do hate Cork.
