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Irish Voice Sport

Sideline Views

April 16, 2008

By Cathal Dervan

GAA:
Sometimes the moral right can go just a little too far. One of the great traditions of Irish sporting life has always been the celebratory drink from the cup of success, but now the GAA Congress has voted to ban filling cups with alcohol. I know where they are coming from, but I hardly think a sip from a battered cup is going to kill anyone or set a bad example. Most kids I know wouldn’t drink from a cup if you paid them, but yet again the right thing has to be seen to be done in modern day Ireland.

BOXING:
Iron Mike Tyson has offered to help the troubled Paul Gascoigne through his latest bout of manic depression, a nice gesture from a man who knows a thing or two about fighting demons. Or is it? Tyson made the offer at the same time as he announced a speaking tour of Britain that includes a date in Gazza’s native Newcastle. Now call me cynical, but could Tyson be looking for some publicity with this offer? Just don’t tell him I said that. Please.

SOCCER:
Any former Sligo Rovers player out there who lost a commemorative medal from the First Division championship win in 2005 should contact the club after it was handed in to the Showgrounds recently. Club promotions officer Keith O’Dwyer said, “The club issued these medals to all members of the 2005 squad. It is not an official League medal but we would like to find the player who owns it.” Answers on a postcard.

GAA:
Don’t mention Roy Keane to the Laois football manager Liam Kearns, who has been forced to abandon plans for a training camp at Sunderland next week. Keano, it seems, wasn’t taken with the idea of a load of Laois footballers hanging around the place as his team battles against the now unlikely prospect of relegation so he called time on the trip, leaving Laois to kick their heels.

RUGBY:
God bless the Munster fans. So many of them applied on line for tickets for their upcoming Heineken Cup semifinal against Saracens that the English club have had to temporarily close down the site selling their allocation. Like Leinster in the Lansdowne semi a couple of years ago, the home fans may find themselves drowned out at the Ricoh Arena next month.

SOCCER:
Marco Tardelli is offering a reward for the first Irish player to celebrate a goal with the famous Tardelli wave after his strike against West Germany in the 1982 World Cup final. Tardelli has yet to reveal what the prize on offer is, but those of us who have suffered with the Ireland team in recent years will be glad just to see anyone in green score a goal.

HURLING:
Incredible story from the Leinster minor hurling championship where Wicklow turned up with just 13 players for a game in Westmeath, then failed to turn out for the second half after trailing by 9-22 to no score at half-time in Mullingar. Expect the Garden County to be fined.

SOCCER:
Thierry Henry is going through something of a hard time at Barcelona, but even he may not realize how bad things are after the Seattle Sounders offered Henry an escape to the MLS for the 2009 season. Life couldn’t be that bad in Spain for the former Arsenal hero, could it?

SOCCER:
A question to all those who berated Stan for picking Robbie Keane as his captain –- why were you all so quiet after Tuesday when the great Giovanni Trapattoni picked the same skipper?

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