Traveling players will be insured: GAA

[caption id="attachment_67531" align="aligncenter" width="600" caption="The boss is not happy with the captain."]

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Padraic Duffy, the GAA's director general, has said that in future GAA players will be insured while playing in the U.S. during the summer. The decision was made after the horrific injury suffered by the young Fermanagh player Mark McGovern in San Franciso last June. McGovern's travel insurance didn't cover contact sports and his family was left with medical bills of over €1 million. Duffy said: ''Sadly it took the Mark McGovern case to draw it to our attention. The injury itself was horrific and the circumstances were similarly so, but the injuries and challenges that his family have had to deal with, we would like to avoid that situation arising again. We have come to the conclusion that the only way to ensure players going to the States are properly covered is if we take responsibility for it here in Ireland. What we hope to achieve is that any player going to play on a sanction as Mark did will be covered by insurance from Ireland.''

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Tyrone manager Mickey Harte backed Duffy's decision, saying that very few players would go to the U.S. and the game's future in the States would be at risk if they were not insured. Harte said: ''I have no doubt you would have strong reservations about letting your own child go. It's a high risk game if that's going to be the case and we all know how quick and fast those bills can mount up. This is a real statement of intent from the GAA that we do want to promote our games outside of Ireland.''

Meanwhile McGovern is making good progress in rehab and his sister Grace told the BBC: ''If we have to pay the bill for the rest of our lives who cares -- we have Mark and to me that's priceless.''

WATERFORD LOCAL TO LEAD HURLERS

Michael Ryan is the new Waterford senior hurling manager. The man who lead the Waterford ladies to five All-Ireland football titles, takes over from Davy Fitzgerald, who has moved back to his native Clare. Ryan, who managed the Mount Sion hurlers last year and was a selector with previous Waterford manager Justin McCarthy, is the first Waterford native in 15 years to manage the Déise senior hurlers. His first game in the Munster Championship next summer will be against Davy Fitz and Clare.

Meanwhile in neighboring Kilkenny, County Board officials are confident that Brian Cody will continue for a record 14th season. County Board Chairman Paul Kinsella said that they have not put any pressure on Cody and that they won't start talking to him until next month. Cody was first appointed in November 1998 and most people expect Cody to be reappointed at the next Kilkenny County Board meeting on Nov. 14.

KERRY'S WALSH HAS 1ST TEAM HOPES

Former Kerry Gaelic footballer Tommy Walsh is hoping to see more first-team action with Sydney Swans in the new Aussie Rules season. Walsh left Aussie Rules club St Kilda last week and joined Sydney Swans on the last day of the transfer window. St Kilda were anxious to keep the Tralee-born player, but Walsh wanted to get away as he didn't play any league games for the club. In the end St Kilda accepted two of Sydney's draft pick in exchange for the 23 year-old Kerryman.

Meanwhile Setanta O hAilpin, the former Cork hurler, has been delisted by Carlton after eight years with the club. It's not known if O hAilpin will stay on in Australia where his brother Aisake plays Aussie Rules at a lower level. Maybe they will both come back to Cork and link up with their older brother Seán Og who was recently recalled to the Cork senior hurling squad by new manager Jimmy Barry Murphy.

Another player delisted is Derry's Chris McKaigue, who parted company with Sydney Swans after two years. He is likely to play for the Derry senior footballers again next year. So speculation that the GAA's links with Aussie Rules would see a drain of talent to the Australian game was wide of the mark. Over the past 25 years only a handful of GAA players have made a successful switch from GAA to Aussie Rules: Jim Stynes, Tadhg Kennelly and the late Seán Wight the only ones to really make it.

O'DRISCOLL HAS NO PLANS TO QUIT

Irish rugby captain Brian O'Driscoll says he is not looking forward to retiring and says he hopes to have another 18 months at the top. Driscoll said he hopes to continue playing until the 2013 British and Irish Tour of Australia. O'Driscoll, who is 32, said: ''Over the years I have heard lads talking about the end of their careers and how much they were missing the camaraderie and the craic and I thought they were exaggerating. But I can see now that what they were talking about. I have spent over a third of my life playing professional rugby, so it's going to have a huge impact when the day comes and I'm not looking forward to it.''

DR. CROKES WANT ANOTHER CHANCE

Kerry is one of the few counties left where the county champions get to nominate the county senior football captain. Naturally Dr. Crokes officials were very disappointed when Kerry were beaten by Dublin in last month's All-Ireland final, which meant their man Colm Cooper didn't get to lift the Sam Maguire Cup. Statisticians were quick to point out that a player wearing number 13 has never lifted the Sam Maguire Cup. So naturally the Killarney club is hoping that they can win the Kerry County Final again on Sunday and give Cooper another chance to captain Kerry again in 2012. If Mid Kerry win then Darran O'Sullivan or Donncha Walsh will probably captain Kerry next year. O'Sullivan opted out of the Irish International Rules team who are currently in Australia, to play in Sunday's final.

KEANE TO MAKE PLAYOFFS: ARENA

LA Galaxy manager Bruce Arena is hopeful that Robbie Keane will be fit for the MLS play-offs and that's good news for Ireland. Arena said: ''Robbie will be back at very soon. The injury he has means it's very difficult to set a specific time for a return. Hopefully he will be ready for our first play-off game, but we are doing to do what makes sense. If he needs more time, he is going to get more time.''

If Keane gets through a few games for Galaxy he should then be fit for the first leg of Ireland's 2012 play-off against Estonia in Tallinn on Nov. 11. Keane picked up an abductor injury in the 2-0 win over Andorra last month and manager Giovanni Trapattoni apparently wasn't happy that Keane didn't reveal the full extinct of the injury to him earlier. Meanwhile the Estonia FA has given Irish supporters 1,400 tickets for the first leg and they have told Irish supporters who buy tickets for the Estonia section of the ground have been told that they will be turned away.

We don't have a great record in play-offs, but if you look back at results in recent years the top seeded country in the play-off has always got through. At present we are rated 25th in the FIFA rankings while Estonia are 59th.

U.S. BOOSTS DUB MARATHON NUMBERS

This is Bank Holiday weekend in Ireland and for many people that mean a lie in on Monday morning. But for over 14,000 runners of various capabilities, it will be an early start as they line up in Fitzwilliam Square, Dublin at 10am for the 32rd Dublin City. Marathon. Race organizers thought they would never surpass the 11,000 people who competed in Dublin's Millennium Marathon in 1988. Numbers dropped for a few years, but they began to grow again as overseas entries especially from the U.S. began to grow. Now the number of Irish entrants is growing again to coincide with a series of local races and this year we will see a record 14,000 take to the streets of Dublin on Monday morning.

 

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