RESPECTABILITY! That was what it was all about for Pat Joe Whelahan and the Birr players when they faced up to reigning champions Shamrocks Ballyhale in the AIB Leinster club hurling semi-final yesterday, in a game which team captain Brian Whelahan reckoned they had a ‘great chance’ of winning without having to face the combined threat of Henry Shefflin and James ‘Cha’ Fitzpatrick.

TIPPERARY officials are confident that the issue of the captaincy of the senior hurling team will not prove controversial this year — as it was last year and previously when Babs Keating was in charge.