Rebel with a dual cause not resting on laurels

SPORTING PASSIONS JIMMY BARRY MURPHYThe Cork hurling and football legend tells Mark Roddenhe has more time for racing - a long-time passion - since he gave up coaching Gaelic games

GENERALLY I'D be a fanatic sports fan but hurling, football and soccer would be the main ones. I played League of Ireland soccer with Cork Celtic for a while but my main passion was obviously hurling and football.

I played for Cork Celtic for about six months as a centre forward. I was part of the first team for a while but it started to get hard when the hurling was back on.

You couldn't play all the sports so from 1972 on I concentrated on hurling and football. I moved on and Cork Celtic won the league the next year so there's a moral there somewhere.

I've always been interested in greyhound and horse racing. I'd go to Mallow to the local track and the greyhound track at Western Road was near me at home so I grew into it really.

I go to a good few races since I stopped coaching and I enjoy the day out. Jim Bolger has invited me on a few occasions to the big day out in the Curragh or Leopardstown and it's been great. On Derby or Guineas days, or Champion Hurdle day in Leopardstown, there's a fantastic atmosphere and a great cross-section of people attend them.

Over the last couple of years Teofilo was a fantastic two-year-old for Jim and I followed his career and how Jim prepared him.

I thought New Approach winning at Epsom this year was a fantastic achievement because of all the controversy that went before it with him not being supposed to run and being beaten in the Guineas at the Curragh.

I was there that day and Jim thought the ground didn't suit him and I think he was proved right when he bounced back to win the Derby for himself and Kevin Manning.

I've been following the Derby since I was a young lad and I was thrilled to see Jim winning it. I think it was a unique achievement for him because he's bred his own horses and he's taking on the might of the big breeding establishments like Coolmore and the Sheikhs.

It's so difficult to compete with the huge conglomerates that he's up against but he's still managed to keep himself at the forefront of training.

I've owned a few greyhounds over the years. I'd always have one or two and I enjoy going to the greyhound track and having a bit of fun with them.

You have to look at the breeding and find out what you might like or see a dog that's showing a bit of promise as a pup, buy him and see how it goes.

Myself and my son Brian have had a good few dogs and we've been lucky enough with them over the years. I haven't looked into owning a horse. I follow it fairly seriously but the cost factor is huge as regards owning or training a horse so I wouldn't be in that league.

The attraction with greyhound racing is that it's more accessible for the ordinary man like myself who can afford to buy a dog and keep him in training.

Paschal Taggart got me involved in Curraheen Park greyhound track in Cork so it was great for me to see the development of that over the past number of years. The figures speak for themselves - it's been a phenomenal success story. The new stadium they've built just shows that if you provide proper facilities with good entertainment and a family atmosphere then people can respond to it.

My son Brian played soccer with Cork City but he's been in England for a good few years and is with Bury now. It's a great lifestyle, he loves it and he can make a living out of it. He was lucky enough to play for Ireland at underage level and got a number of caps at 18 and under-21. It was a great honour and we were delighted about that.

It's a different life to the one we were used to playing GAA but there are lots of similarities in many ways.

I played both football and hurling but dual players have died out of the GAA really. I work with Dinny Allen and we were talking recently about how it's so hard for players to play both now. We managed to combine it but with the amount of games that are being played now and the back door of the championship it just became totally impractical.

It's a shame because you are missing players from teams who could have something to contribute. I'd like to see some of the hurlers who are good enough to play football with Cork playing with them still, for example. It's something we all enjoyed doing and it's just unfortunate it can't be done nowadays.