Cooney backing for interprovincial ties

WHAT a difference six months makes.

Last September GAA president Nickey Brennan told reporters in Croke Park that the M Donnelly Interprovincials were ‘past their sell-by-date’. The axe seemed ready to fall.

Not so. Yesterday, Brennan’s successor sat in the multi-billion euro Emirates Palace hotel in Abu Dhabi ahead of today’s hurling final between Leinster and Connacht at the Ghantoot Racing and Polo Club where he all but gave the old competition the kiss of life.