Quinlan grasps Premier chance

NICKY ENGLISH, eat your heart out! A few weeks ago, English slagged off Alan Quinlan, a good friend and fellow Tipperary man, telling him ‘you’ll never play at Croke Park’. Not surprisingly for a native of the Premier County, that struck a nerve.

But Nicky was wrong. “Quinny” will bestride the GAA’s majestic headquarters this evening, and jokes aside, you know English will be as proud as any Tipp man to see it happen. There are several good reasons for that; primarily, it’s probably because Quinlan has only been on the fringe of things at national level for four or five years and is now 34.

And given the fickle nature of the way the Irish team is currently going, there mightn’t be too many other opportunities in the future.