was that 1973 munster final in killarney @balbec with the dry ball?
1971
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Nicely put
Thereâs no characters like that in intercounty GAA anymore.
Babs, Richie Bennis, lads like that - the game is poorer for all the PC corporate speak that infects it today.
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Didnât realise heâd moved. Youâd often see him in the bookies in castleknock or blanch village beside the Bell pub in a golf jumper, tracksuit bottoms and a pair of shoes trying to get a bet on his phone account 30 seconds after the off. A decent enough skin.
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Davy Fitz is alive n kicking
He wrote that in his newspaper column. It was a fair enough assessment. Tipp were All Ireland champions and had demolished Limerick in the semi final. Waterford had scraped past Cork in a very poor game.
He was interviewed on rate the day before the game. I remember listening to it. It wasnât so much what he said, it was the way he said it
He said in his Sunday Times column [which was a great read btw] the morning of the KK/Wexford game in 2004 that you could do a lot worse if you have a spare 8 grand to put it all on KK to win Leinster at odds of 1/8.
In hindsight I should have chanced a tenner on Wexford that day at the big odds they were !
Babs probably had that bet on himself. Be a fierce man for the bookies
Funnily enough my one and only time ever meeting him was in the bookies in Rosslare many years ago when I was on holidays there.
Stakelum is an absolute gent. All those fellas love Babs. He was the first to bring an air of professionalism to the game. Had them stay in hotels before the matches in Killarney, decked them out in suits. Up to the then, they barely had a tracksuit between them.
Fox told me that Babs was the first one to get his knee checked out. Had him up in Blackrock a few weeks later, after years of problems
A fella I know was on the Waterford team in 1987 when Tipp came to Walsh Park for a league game. Waterford players were in the habit of squeezing into cars and driving to matches. As the team were milling around in the space outside the dressing rooms in their denims smoking fags Tipp turned in a bus all decked out in blazers ties and pants and brushed past our lads who stared in amazement. It was game over before it started.
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Post of the month, well said. Infected with cap-doffers afraid to speak their mind.
When Jim Greene was managing Knockainey he used to have them travelling to Bruff by bus for matches.
Babs has had a right cut off Jim Gavin for the spiralling cost of intercounty teams.
Thatâll keep Jim up at night. Babs has a bit of a neck considering heâs the one that started the ball rolling.
He fundraised a fair share of that himself in fairness. Ringing every Tipp man he knew in Dublin, London, New York, etc.
He got the great Bill Quinlan, the orthopaedic man to sort out any of the Tipp lads injuries free of charge too.
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