Time for Tribesmen to step up

WHAT with Offaly forced to score a last-minute free to draw with Antrim in regular time before going on to win in extra-time, the same Offaly then going on to draw with Galway in the semi-final before losing to another late point in the replay, it’s already been a topsy-turvy season in Leinster hurling.

Hell, didn’t Carlow beat Laois in the All-Ireland qualifiers after losing by six points to them twice already this year? Didn’t Cork have a comprehensive win over Tipp in Munster with everyone tipping them to lose, and let’s not even get into the football – surprise after surprise. As we head into the Leinster senior hurling final in Croke Park this Sunday then, Kilkenny bidding for six-in-a-row and their 12th provincial title in 13 seasons, one man hoping that the trend of upsets in the 2010 GAA season continues – for this weekend at least – is Galway centre-back Tony Óg Regan. “Yes – hopefully there will be one more on Sunday! But it’s a good thing, all those upsets, it had become very predictable for a number of years but every team now feels they have a fighting chance.”

He could have been involved with the football championship himself, of course, coming from blue-blooded big-ball stock, his father Tony ‘Horse’ O’Regan (“Surely one of the great GAA nicknames!” reckons his son) a former Roscommon stalwart. Tony Óg began life as a dual player, was going well in football with Salthill until fate took a hand. “I was called in to the county minor hurlers and with the Leaving Cert coming up as well, I had to make a choice. We won the All-Ireland that year, and at 16, in front of a crowd of 60,000 – that would have a big bearing on your decision on the best way to go! As a young lad I just felt hurling with Galway was what I wanted to do, even though I was enjoying my football.”