No time for sentiment as Tom Cribbin’s Westmeath men face Kildare

When Tom Cribbin was first approached about managing a senior inter-county team, Laois, in late 1998, he presumed it was a wind-up and resolved not to be made a fool of.

He was pretty sure, in fact, that it was Willie McCreery, a Kildare legend and renowned messer, on the line when his daughter handed him the house phone and said Laois official, Dick Miller, wanted a word.

‘You’re some bollix!’ declared Cribbin, grasping the phone. Only it wasn’t McCreery, it was actually Miller and, when the communications mix-up was resolved, Cribbin agreed to become the new Laois boss.