Sports Desk: Road trips make for perfect sporting Sundays

With the re-development of Croke Park and the tendency to fix all big games for the Jones Road venue these trips have become rare in recent
years. But after some poor turn outs at GAA headquarters last year the Leinster Council have decided to bring the hurling and football
championship back to provincial towns like: Longford, Portlaoise, Mullingar, Wexford and Kilkenny, which I know is officially a city.
There will however be some football double-headers at Croke Park, while the Leinster final will be the only Leinster hurling game at GAA headquarters next year.
The Dubs will be heading West on June 4, next year for a first round clash with Longford at Pearse Park. Longford put up a brave show at Croke Park this year, but in the end they were no match for the Dubs. The outcome will probably be the same next year, but a tight pitch plus the fact that nearly half of the 17,000 crowd will be locals, should
make for a more exciting encounter and give Longford a better chance of an upset.
But not everybody is happy, people like Dublin Chairman John Bailey. He said: ‘Maybe we should set ourselves up as own our province because at least that way we might be treated fairly. Games in Croke Park are of no financial benefit to us. If the Leinster Council wanted to move the game out of Croke Park, then why couldn’t this game have been fixed for Parnell Park. Apart from a qualifier against London two years ago we never get any high profile games at our own ground. We half filled Croke Park earlier this year, while Longford only brought a couple of thousand supporters. Why should Dublin fans be forced to travel when there will be more Dublin supporters than Longford? It doesn’t make sense.’
I think Bailey is getting it all wrong. Dublin supporters won’t mind traveling in the least. A few years back Dublin supporters got a fair bit of slagging after many of those traveling to Thurles didn’t give themselves enough time to reach Semple Stadium on an August Bank Holiday weekend. Next year’s game is also on a Bank Holiday weekend, so traffic in towns like Enfield and Kinnegad will be just as bad. But the good news is that work is currently underway on the Edgwardstown bypass.
Meanwhile Croke Park will rock next year to the sounds of Bon Jovi on May 20 and Robbie Williams on June 9.

KERRY STICKS
WITH TRADITION
Kerry are one of the few counties who retain the traditional method of appointing a county captain. For decades the winners of the county championship nominate a captain. This can work well if there is a good leader from the club or divisional winners, but many counties are now moving away from this method and the county manager nominates a captain.
South Kerry recently won the Kerry senior football championship, but now we will have to wait and see which club wins the South Kerry championship before a captain emerges. All very democratic, but hardly fair as players with a small club that decide to go it alone, cannot compete with a divisional team. Last year Dromid Pearses were the South Kerry winners and they nominated Declan O’Sullivan. The only other players currently in the Kerry panel from South Kerry are Bryan Sheehan from St. Mary’s Cahirciveen and Ronan O’Connor from St. Michael’s Foilmore. Either way it’s unlikely to bother Kerry too much as manager Jack O’Connor is also from South Kerry and he should know the local politics.

TOP CAT CARTER
LASHES EX-BOSS
However, the system of county champions nominating a captain can go wrong and Charlie Carter obviously feels that Kilkenny manager would have preferred if his club Gowran had nominated D.J. Carey rather than himself for captain in 2003. Carey already had a year as captain and naturally Gowran felt the honor should go to Carter, but the appointment coincided with a decline in Carter’s form and he was dropped by Cody.
Now in a new book “Triumphs and Troubles,” Carter says he will never forgive the Kilkenny manager for the way he was treated. ‘At every opportunity Cody had stuck the dagger in me. Every time I seemed to be coming right, he took me down another peg. There was never a pat on the back, never a quiet ‘well done.’ I had become deflated. He kept pushing until I cracked. I felt I was treated very shabbily. It’s something I will never forgive Brian Cody for,’ he writes. Carter eventually quit the panel after being left on the bench for the full 70 minutes as Kilkenny hammered Dublin in a Leinster Championship game in June 2003. Cody has refused to comment on the contents of the book.
Other GAA stars who have books out this Christmas include former Dublin star and Gaelic Players Association boss Dessie Farrell and Clare goalkeeper Davy Fitzgerald. In his book “Tangled up in Blue,” Farrell says the pressures of Gaelic football helped break up his marriage. Fitzgerald’s book is titled “The Passion and the Pride” and in it he elaborates on the abuse he received from supporters of other Munster counties referring to his failed marriage.

CRICKET CLASH
SET FOR STORMONT
Ireland’s One-Day Cricket international against England next June will be played at the Civil Service grounds at Stormont. The Belfast venue
was selected ahead of Castle Avenue in Dublin, as it offers extra seating capacity in what is expected to be an all-ticket game. The Irish Cricket Union plan to install 7,000 temporary seats for the June 13 game and they will also look at the possibility of erecting corporate hospitality tents inside the ground. The decision to opt for Stormont is subject to agreement from the International Cricket Council.

SETANTA EXPANDS
Next year’s North-South Setanta Cup will be expanded from six to eight clubs and will start on Feb. 20. Linfield, who beat Shelbourne to win the inaugural trophy last April, are in again and will be joined by Glentoran, Portadown and Dungannon Swifts from the Irish League. Cork City, Derry City, Shelbourne and either Drogheda or Bohemians will be the Eircom League’s representatives. Despite earlier fears the inaugural competition was trouble free, although the attendances were poor as the games were played midweek.

IRFU INCREASES
OFFER FOR HOMES
The Irish Rugby Football Union are reported to have told residents of Knockalisheen Road in Limerick “to name your price” for their homes. The IRFU want to purchase and demolish 16 houses on Knockalisheen Road so that they can extend Thomond Park and double the capacity of the stadium from 13,000 to 26,000. Previously the IRFU offered residents