John Fogarty: GAA have to ask fans to support responsibly

For Waterford or Limerick to come home victorious but empty-handed would be preposterous if we weren’t living in such bizarre times

Waterford’s Tadhg de Búrca, right, and Shane McNulty celebrate reaching the All-Ireland final after beating Kilkenny. There is huge excitement in the county but the GAA are a watching closely amid fears exuberant fans could breach social distancing guidelines. Picture: Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile

Mon, 30 Nov, 2020 - 20:50

John Fogarty

John Fogarty is the Irish Examiner’s GAA correspondent, with unique insights into the action on the pitch and in the Gaelic games’ corridors of power.

Covid or no Covid, the Liam MacCarthy Cup won’t be going anywhere on December 13. In fact, it has pretty much remained in Dublin since the 1990s, when the original trophy was retired to the museum.

In 1992, a new MacCarthy Cup was commissioned and presented to winning teams starting with Kilkenny. Since then, it has been repaired on a number of occasions while a replica of it and the Sam Maguire Cup were created for marketing purposes 10 years ago.