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MICKO ADDS TO KERRY FOOTBALL BOOK BOOM You might remember we recently mentioned it was going to be another big year for GAA books, with Kerry football practically an industry in its own. Well, now there's a fifth Kerry book coming out this year. Not only is there Joe � Muircheartaigh and TJ Flynn's tome on the greatest Kerry footballers of all-time, Michael Foley's Kings of September on the classic OffalyKerry All Ireland of 25 years ago, Jack O'Connor's reflections on his tenure as Kerry boss and Weeshie Fogarty's biography on the legendary Kerry trainer Dr Eamon O'Sullivan, due out next month, but it emerges the most famous Kerry coach of them all, Mick O'Dwyer, is bringing out his memoirs this October by teaming up with Martin Breheny. This news might explain why some of the other projects found the great man so elusive, but all his ducking and hiding should be worth the wait, as he promises to "tell it as it was and is, rather than how others saw it".
CONNACHT LEADING THE WAY IN LEAGUE SEMIS With Galway and Mayo meeting in a league semi-final or "nal for the third time in six years, we trawled through the various Division One semifinalists since the turn of the century.
And interestingly, Mayo have qualified for more Division One semi-finals than any other county this century, making the cut five times. Galway join Tyrone on four.
Kerry, meanwhile, are on three, tied with, funnily enough, Roscommon who made the semi-finals for the first three years of the decade. In fact, of all the provinces, Connacht have had the most semi-finalists this decade, with 13. Ulster are next with 10, with Leinster on five and Munster with four. In all, 16 counties - half the country - have made Division One semi-finals this past eight years - and Dublin and Cork weren't any of them. It begs the question - is getting rid of Division 1A and 1B and the semi-finals such a good idea?
CREDIT WHERE DUE TO 'GREAT MAN' KINSELLA This column customarily being more interested in poking fun at prominent GAA figures than praising them, it's with an unwonted spring in our step that we sing the praises of Wexford county secretary Mick Kinsella. Cue Gizmo Lyng with sentiments that, on grounds of space, failed to make the article on page 29 of today's Tribune but that deserve a public airing nonetheless.
"Mick Kinsella does a fantastic job.
He gets so much unfair criticism, but anything that can be done for Wexford hurling, he does it. When you're training in the gym in October, he's always there, opening the place and locking up. A great man."
We said exactly that to Kinsella at Congress yesterday too. He blushed.
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YOU ARE HERE: 11 November 2007 / tribune.ie / 2007 / 04 / 15
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