Comrades rejoin the battle

THERE was a time when they were as close as peas in a pod. That brilliant St Finbarr’s side of the late 70s/early 80s, Donal O’Grady was the tough, hard-jawed full-back, John Allen the tall, bearded, commanding figure outside him, in the centre of the half-line. Before that decade was out, however, the partnership had broken up, their paths drifted apart.

“We were both still living in the city, but we were never involved with the same teams,” John Allen explained. How then did they end up back together, O’Grady as manager of the Cork senior hurling team that this weekend will be attempting to wrest the Munster crown from Waterford in Thurles, Allen as one of his four horsemen?

“I was really surprised when he asked me to be a selector, to tell the truth. In fact when he rang me I thought he was ringing to ask me to be the masseur again. I was kind of thinking would I say yes or no. Being a selector hadn’t occurred to me.”