Interpro series can regain status, says Gardiner

MARTIN Donnelly’s ongoing sponsorship of the interprovincial series has been praised in many quarters — administrators, press, public — and with good reason.

The Clare native has been working hard to revive the once-glamorous fixtures, and the participants are certainly grateful.

“In fairness to him, he was over with us in Boston a couple of years ago,” says Cork wing-back John Gardiner. “He’s doing great work to try to get it back, and it’d be great if it could become more popular.”

Gardiner plays for Munster in tonight’s game against Connacht and is a strong advocate for the revival of the competition.

“They’re trying to get it back up and running — you saw that when they brought the game to Boston, and this is a good idea too: having it under lights in Croke Park is unusual, hopefully we’ll get a good crowd out for it.

“I think it’s a great competition, particularly for this time of the year. I know it can be a hassle for some fellas because they’re still stuck in club championships, but if they could market it properly it could regain the status it had.

“I know they’re doing their best to market it, and it’s probably going to be impossible to get it all the way back up to the status that it had before with the huge crowds on St Patrick’s Day long ago, but it’s a great competition.”

Part of the attraction for the players is lining out alongside men who are usually in the opposing corner, as Gardiner points out.

“You’re playing with lads you don’t know because you’re playing against them for the rest of the year, so it’s very enjoyable. We trained during the week and it was great craic, very enjoyable.”

Eoin Kelly of Waterford — often an opponent for Gardiner — concurs, pointing out that players see the other side of summer rivals when playing for the province..

“It’s true, you’d have an impression of lads from playing against them but off the field you know lads are sound out — you’d meet them at various events during the year and you know they’re grand.”

Kelly enjoys wearing the blue jersey as much as Gardiner.

“It’s a great honour to play for Munster,” says the Waterford star, “You’re playing with the lads from Cork, Tipp, Clare and Limerick, lads you don’t really know. We’ll have good crack, but we’ll be taking the game seriously.”

(M Donnelly Interprovincial Hurling Final: Munster v Connacht, Croke Park, 7pm).