Tipp officials hopeful of avoiding captaincy row

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.

Nevertheless, the player nominated by county champions Toomevara — John O’Brien — is currently recovering from a car crash and his fitness will be a serious issue both for himself and the team.

At this stage, he is ruling himself out of contention for the semi-final game against Limerick on June 10. “It’s an honour to be given the captaincy no matter what state I’m in,” he said. “I would love to return to training next week with the other Toomevara lads but I should be back in May all going well.

“I have another check up in two weeks time and hopefully things will go well for me but I got decent news recently and I hope to be off the crutches in another few weeks.

“Realistically, I know that I won’t be hurling competitively until the All-Ireland quarter-finals but I could be right for the Munster final yet.”

Yesterday, Keating indicated that the player had informed him of the nomination. But the Tipp manager noted they have yet to decide which players from Toome will be called into their squad. None of them were considered for last Sunday’s opening NHL game, having been given time off following the recent All-Ireland club semi-final defeat to Shamrocks Ballyhale.

Keating hoped they would be available for selection for Sunday week’s League game against Kilkenny in Nowlan Park, which has taken on added significance following the defeat by Limerick. Likewise, the issue of nominating the captain had been deferred by agreement with the County Board until after their interest in the club championship ended.

John O’Brien played in all of Tipperary’s four championship games last year, at left half-forward. Interestingly, he was taken off in three of them, including the All-Ireland quarter-final against Waterford.

In that game, Tipp were captained by Lar Corbett. He took over from Thurles Sarsfields clubmate Ger ‘Redser’ O’Grady, who had been dropped from the squad for disciplinary reasons after the Munster final defeat by Cork.

lTipperary have a system in place whereby a vice-captain is picked jointly by the Board executive in consultation with the team management. Through this mechanism, the player to be chosen this year will automatically take over the captaincy in the event of Toomevara not having a representative in the starting 15.