Compiled by DAMIAN CULLEN

Tipp's minor feat on the field of play

YESTERDAY, Tipperary claimed their second minor football title, but the first won on the field of play.

In 1934, Dublin and Tyrone were thrown out of the championship, and, as Tipperary had beaten Mayo in the other semi-final, they were awarded the title.

Duals in the crown: Tipp and Dublin benefit

MANY, many years ago in Tipperary, the countys minor hurling manager took five or six of the panel aside and told them their services would not be needed on the hurling panel if they continued to make themselves available for the county’s football squad.

It was one or the other.

After a brief consolation, which centred on resentment at the ultimatum, the players decided to throw their lot in with the footballers.

In a hurling county, it was unprecedented.

And, in fact, it never actually came to pass, as – faced with the withdrawal of several talented players – the hurling manager experienced a new and sudden conversion to the glory of dual players and withdrew the ultimatum.

Today, dual players are very thin on the ground.

At senior level, they’re very very rare – a few here and there such as Mayo’s Keith Higgins and Cork’s Eoin Cadogan.

Which makes this year’s All-Ireland minor hurling and football finals all the more interesting.

Dublin would certainly have not won the Leinster minor hurling title this season, and reached the All-Ireland decider, were it not for the services of several players – such as Eric Lowndes, Ciarán Kilkenny, Cormac Costello and Emmet Ó Conghaile – who were also on show yesterday in the minor football decider.

It’s only natural that a young player who is equally gifted in both codes would choose the game that holds the most prestige in the county.

In Dublin that’s football.

In Tipperary that’s hurling,

There’s absolutely no way the Tipperary minor footballers would have claimed the All-Ireland title – the second for the county, and the first won on the field of play – if it had not been for the presence of several dual players, including yesterday’s winning captain Liam McGrath, John McGrath and John Meagher.

The dual player must be protected.

Still unlucky 13

IF you weren’t superstitious already, yesterdays games

might well have tipped you over the edge.

Firstly, every jersey from one to 15 has been worn by the captain of an All-Ireland senior football winning team – except one.

The number 13.

And, after Colm Cooper could only watch as the Dublin’s Bryan Cullen went up the steps of the Hogan Stand yesterday evening, that tradition remains true today.

Incidently the number six jersey is second on the list of All-Ireland senior football winning captains – with the number 11 proving the most popular.

Also, as was pointed out in this newspaper on Saturday by John OSullivan, the omens were good for the Dublin senior team after the minor side lost their final.

On three occasions now Dublin have met Tipperary in the minor decider and, on the same day, Dublin have played Kerry in the senior final.

On the first two occasions the Dublin minors prevailed, but the senior side were defeated.

Yesterday, Tipperary claimed the minor title, and, with the gods in disarray, Dublin were able to sneak the senior game.

Medal of honour:The hammer is ready to drop

YOU wait for an All-Ireland senior football title for ages, and then, well, a few arrive at once.

One of the items available for the highest bidder in the latest issue of Collectibles Corner, which is based in Cathedral Street in central Dublin, is a 1908 All-Ireland football winner’s medal (right).

Fittingly, Dublin defeated Kildare in that year’s Leinster decider, and then, in the All-Ireland decider, faced a Kerry side that had overcome Mayo in the semi-final.

Dublin defeated Kerry a little more comfortably that day than they did yesterday – claiming the “Home Final” 0-10 to 0-3 in Thurles, before easily disposing of London at Jones’ Road.

The final date for bidding on the medal is Wednesday, October 5th, but, before you set your heart on owning a medal to rival the ones claimed yesterday by Dublin, you might want to know the cost is not a thousand training sessions – it’s a thousand euro, or possibly even more than that.

Kerry supporters might be cheered up by an auction on Wednesday in Castlecomer, Co Kilkenny when a programme from the 1955 All-Ireland football final will go to the highest bidder (probably somewhere around the €200 mark). The 0-12 to 1-6 victory over Dublin gave the Kingdom their 18th All-Ireland title.

One of the main items on sale at Mealy’s on Wednesday is a baseball bat given by Babe Ruth to Frank McGrath, then manager of the Tipperary hurling team, which was visiting New York in 1926.

It’s an original Spalding B12 Baseball Bat, whatever that means.

And it’s your for around €5,000!

We are absolutely resisting recommending any team manager but a bid on Lot 277A, a GAA book by Dick Fitzgerald from 1914: How to Play Football.

IT’S LADIES FIRST IN CORK, MONAGHAN AND CAVAN BUT NOT IN WESTMEATH

THERE’S still one major day left on the intercounty championship calendar with the women’s football finals taking place in Croke Park next Sunday.

Cork and Monaghan meet in the senior decider and it’s a measure of the respect that exists that several men’s fixtures have been arranged and re-arranged to avoid a clash with the biggest annual day in women’s football. It certainly hasn’t always been that way.

Cork’s senior football semi-finals (Avondhu v UCC and Castlehaven v Carbery Rangers) are fixed for next Saturday evening, while Monaghan’s semi-finals are on Friday (Scotstown v Magheracloone) and Saturday (Latton O’Rahilly v Ballybay).

In fact, the Cavan County Board have ensured that next Sunday is completely free of men’s championship games in order to encourage as many as possible to make the trip to Croke Park to support the county’s womens team in the intermediate final against Wesmeath.

The Cavan men’s senior and intermediate football finals are now on the following weekend.

A little cooperation goes a long way – especially in the goodwill stakes, and has helped to create a buzz around the county in the lead-up to the final.

The excitement in their opponent’s county, who are in their first All-Ireland decider since 1987, has been dampened somewhat by the men’s county board decision to fix the Westmeath senior hurling semi-final on the same day as the women’s game.

Apart from the problem that the co-manager of the women’s team, Alan Mangan, is a player on the Castletown-Geoghegan hurling team (who are due to meet Raharney on Sunday evening), it really all boils down to a matter of respect.

The Westmeath captain, Elaine Finn, is a member of the Raharney club.

You’d think Westmeath are sick of reaching All-Ireland finals.