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A miscellany of sports stories

Ice hockey can't hold a candle to real thing

THE SWANSONG to the Winter Olympics in Vancouver the other night was an extremely interesting affair. It involved the ice hockey final – unquestionably a case of the best wine being kept to the end – between hosts Canada, the winners, and the United States.

And, for those who believe that our own game of hurling was actually the genesis for this particular game of stick and puck, the names on either side – Dan Boyle (not the tweeter), Patrick Kane and Ryan Malone among them – would indicate some hurling genes from this side of the pond did work their way through to the modern proponents.

Maybe it’s down that road, a bit like our soccer brethren go in pursuit of an Irish gene pool, that the OCI should go for the next winter games. An Irish ice hockey team, wouldn’t that do something to stir the blood on a cold winter’s night?

Anyway, I digress.

The point was that the ice hockey final was a no-holds-barred kind of affair that was only settled in added time with a golden goal from Sid Crosby.

Yet, despite all of the heaving hearts and emotion of the whole occasion for the hosts, the thing that stuck in the mind was that this game (which supposedly derived on the tundra landscape from a combination of Irish emigrants who’d arrived in Canada with hurleys and Scottish emigrants who’d gone there with shinty sticks) might be fast and exciting and heart-stopping . . . . but it is still not a patch on hurling, with its wonderful skills and no time to draw breath.

It will be interesting to see how the hurling championship pans out this year, but I see that Paddy Power – despite being rebuked in their bold advances to sponsor one Tiger Woods – are taking no chances with their betting for the All-Ireland senior championship.

They have installed Kilkenny – naturally – as favourites. However, it is Kilkenny’s odds (5/6) that is a real surprise, especially after their close and somewhat fortuitous tussle with Tipperary in last year’s decider left them holding the Liam McCarthy again.

Hurling is a game rich in history, with, as legend has it, the first recorded reference going back to the Battle of Moytura near Cong in Co Mayo in 1272 BC between the Fir Bolg and the invading Tuatha De Danann while Cú Chulainn of course became the most famous hurler of all . . . . but what of these times, and how has it come to the stage now where literally a handful of counties are entitled to step forth in search of Liam with any genuine aspirations?

Indeed, if you were to mind the bookies, no-one will stop The Cats.

In fact, only Kilkenny (5/6), Tipperary (2/1), Galway (7/1), Cork (10/1) and Waterford (18/1) are really rated with any chance at all of winning the famous championship with every other team rated as nothing more than long-shots, including Dublin – obviously last week’s win over Tipp counted for nought – who are priced at 80 to 1 to win out.

In terms of value for money, though, Galway are surely the best bet. Although they must nowadays compete in the Leinster championship, their league form to date – minus their Portumna contingent including the majestic Joe Canning – would indicate that a squad of considerable depth has been assembled.

It’ll be interesting to see what impact Canning has on affairs this year. First things first, though, and his thoughts are unlikely to drift towards annexing the Liam McCarthy until the All-Ireland club final is out of the way.

For all of the huffing and putting involved in the showpiece ice hockey final, it merely counts as a warm-up for the real game of ball and stick.

Hurling is the real thing.

Ban can galvanise Kerry forward

BELIEVE IT or not, there is an upside for the player with the decision of the GAA’s Central Hearings Committee to uphold the original eight-week ban imposed on Kerry’s Paul Galvin for his contretemps with Cork’s Eoin Cadogan.

Think of it: he’ll have no more defenders tugging on his jersey, no slagging to take from dimwits in the stands and no one trying to prove they’re tougher than he is.

Eight weeks away from the trials and tribulations of league football, and – as we’ve seen in the past when the man has returned from suspensions – the prospect that he will be leaner, fitter and even better for the championship.

Of course, the CHC had no other option than to stick with the eight-week ban.

Rules is rules, and given that it was Galvin’s second red card inside 12 months there was no leeway for the rule-makers regardless of how much the sense of injustice was within the Kerry camp and a growing belief in the southwest that Galvin has become a marked man for opponents.

As for the “all neutrals at the game felt that it was a harsh sending off”, remark from Kerry chairman Jerome Conway after the suspension was upheld.

One question: how many neutrals attend Cork-Kerry league matches?

These are certainly interesting times for Kerry, what with Tadhg Kennelly, back starring with the Sydney Swans, and St Kilda’s Tommy Walsh basking in his new nickname of “Ivan” – after Ivan Drago, the villain who was Rocky Bilbao’s rival in Rocky IV – swapping the O’Neills ball or the Aussie Rules oval and the likes of Darragh Ó Sé and Diarmuid Murphy calling time on their intercounty careers.

What’s more, Kerry’s involvement in the Munster Under 21 championship next week further delves into the squad’s strength for the National League encounter with Derry tomorrow.

Some might say that, for a change, the men from the Kingdom might understand how other mere mortals feel at the best of times . . . or can the perceived slights be used – excuse the pun – to galvanise those tasked with upholding Kerry honour?

Wise call by Trapattoni

IF A young footballer gets splinters in his backside sitting on a bench, the likelihood is that he won’t want to sit there again. It’s a principle that applies to the local park as much as it does to international football, and it might explain why Giovanni Trapattoni moved so smartly to ensure Scottish-born James McCarthy was sucked forever into the Republic’s international fold when the teenager made his senior debut against Brazil on Tuesday night.

It might also have served as a timely reminder to Northern Ireland manager

Nigel Worthington of the need to act in future.

Last June, he had Everton’s promising teenager Shane Duffy on the bench for a Northern Ireland senior friendly with Italy, during which he used six of his seven substitutes.

Derry-born Duffy – whose father, both paternal grandparents and maternal grandmother all hail from Donegal – was left in the role of spectator, and since has declared for the Republic.

Haas suffers another hit

THE wear and tear from pounding ball after ball in practice and then in a pressure cauldron of a tournament means that tennis players are susceptible to picking up a variety of injuries, but it seems that German ace Tommy Haas (right, at the Australian Open in January) is afflicted more often than most.

Hass, the former world number two and one-time Olympic silver medallist (Sydney Games, 2000), has undergone hip surgery that will keep him out of the game for an indefinite period. This is the latest in a litany of operations that Haas has faced in a career that has seen the nationalised American suffer two broken ankles and undergo three shoulder operations.

Dossier reveals Wild Thing's many indiscretions

GOLF’S SQUEAKY clean image has been tarnished of late, what with all of the Tiger’s transgressions and, now, the full extent of the problems encountered by the real “Wild Thing” John Daly throughout his PGA Tour career.

The full extent of his indiscretions only came to light after the tour’s files on the player were subpoenaed as part of a court case – subsequently dropped on appeal – where the player tried to sue Morris publishing, owners of the Florida Times Union’.

The PGA Tour has a policy of keeping all sanctions imposed on its players secret, but was forced to hand over the file on Daly – amounting to 456 pages – as part of the court case.

Although he didn’t pursue the case, his initial intention to sue the publishers brought the file into the public domain and, naturally, the FTU made good of their access during the week with a litany of the charismatic golfer’s antics.

According to the file, Daly was fined in the region of $100,000 (€73,000) over the course of his career – since coming from nowhere to win the US PGA in 1991 – with some of the accusations levelled at him including that of launching golf balls over the heads of spectators sitting in a grandstand during a golf clinic, hitting golf shots off a beer can during a pro-am and being cited 21 times for “failure to give best efforts” during tournaments.

The very first disciplinary action against Daly goes back to April 1991 when he cursed a playing partner during an event in Mississippi. It transpires Daly was suspended from the tour five times, was placed on probation six times and was cited 11 times for “conduct unbecoming a professional”.

The file finishes with details of a six-month suspension imposed on Daly after an incident in a Hooters restaurant in October 2008 where the golfer passed out, spent the night in a local police cell and was subsequently ordered by the PGA Tour to undergo an in-patient alcohol treatment plan.

Daly, who appeared in last year’s 3 Irish Open while playing on invites on the European Tour at the time of his suspension on the PGA Tour, remains a charismatic figure in the game and has recently started screening a reality TV show on The Golf Channel – his second – in the United States.

The PGA Tour has a policy of not divulging information on fines or suspensions it hands out to players, so it is unlikely we will ever know if another problem child, Mr Woods, has ever suffered a financial hit for his cursing on course or for the throwing of clubs . . . . or for his “transgressions” off the course, which hardly showed the tour in a good light.