Fund sport properly — then let’s talk alcohol

Two days ago, a beaming Davy Russell clambered onto the podium in the winners’ enclosure at Punchestown and had his snap taken as he pretended to take a great, big glug out of the oversized tankard that comes with victory in the Gold Cup.

It brought a neat end to one of those delightful little subplots which sport writes so well given the Youghal jockey had missed out on half of Cheltenham as well as the Grand National festival at Aintree this year due to a lung injury he picked up round about Cleeve Hill last month and which is still preventing him from riding in the UK.

If anyone had any objections to him using the trophy in such a manner then nobody said as much but, as someone who has covered Gaelic games among a plethora of other sports for over a decade now, the first thought was that he would have found himself in a whole heap of controversy had he done much the same on the steps of the Hogan Stand.