Another hurling season and another chapter to add to the often vexed story of the Tipperary captaincy, with the county board's decision to appoint a non-Toomevara man as vice-captain leaving the county champions deeply unhappy. An injury to new team captain Willie Ryan prior to the National League game against Cork a fortnight ago meant that Tipp were led by Conor O'Mahony from Newport rather than by another Toomevara man, much to their displeasure.

"Although we're now prepared to move on, we feel that the county board executive have behaved in a very highhanded manner towards the club and its players," Toomevara chairman Jackie Meagher told the Sunday Tribune yesterday. "We were assured that this would have no implications for Toomevara's nominee as captain this year. But that's not how it has turned out."

But county secretary Tim Floyd announced that the board would "go ahead and nominate a vice-captain". If Ryan were not selected, Floyd added, the captaincy would revert to the vice-captain – ie not to the next available Toomevara player.

This revelation caused consternation in Toomevara, who wrote to the board expressing their surprise at the intention of the executive "to discontinue with the practice, which has been a tradition of this great county and one which has been carried out down the years." Last Friday, Tipperary county PRO Gerard Ryan told the Tribune that the matter was now closed.