THE DUBLIN FOOTBALLERS rare away day from Croke Park will command plenty headlines on the June Bank Holiday weekend.
But it’s not alien territory for all of Jim Gavin’s All-Ireland winning squad.
Defender Jonny Cooper has hurling experiences from a decade ago to draw on from the Kilkenny venue.
In April 2006, he played for the Dublin minor side against Kilkenny in the Leinster hurling championship, with Richie Hogan and Colin Fennelly amongst his opponents.
In the same month he lined out for the Dublin Colleges side in the Croke Cup semi-final against a Midleton CBS team that included current Cork hurlers Brian Lawton and Luke O’Farrell.
“Yeah I played hurling in Nowlan Park,” outlines Cooper, speaking at yesterday’s launch of the new Dublin GAA jersey at the AIG Head Office.
“I haven’t played football but I’ve watched and played hurling there When I was there there wasn’t much of a crowd, but the surface itself was lovely the time I was there.
“From watching games and being at games, it looks like a good place and a good atmosphere.”
Cooper admits it will be a new experience but the occasion is one more for the fans to savour.
“Yeah there will be some attention on it. For the fans it’s something new but for us it’s not really.
“It’s a different ground, different surroundings from Croke Park but for us the process is the same and the game plan or whatever else is going to be the same
“For us it’s work as usual.”
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Golf at its very best, fair play to Rory.
I haven’t ever seen him so pumped up as he was today.Good news for Darren Clarke with the Ryder Cup just around the corner!
Check him quick know what I mean ?
Langer
Some set of balls on him! Wonder what world ranking he’ll be now!?
@Hólec Alfield: He will stay at 3 but he has closed the gap on Johnson… Day’s Lead which was huge is now only a major win ahead of rory (98 pts, 100pts for winning a major)…
Rory is a regular weekly tournament down on… (44pts, weekly comp is about 50)
Fair play to rory on a great win, was entertaining to watch. Just reading there that Arnold Palmer passed away..r.i.p to a great golfing legend
11.5 million……Jesus what I could do with just 10% of that!
He is untouchable when he is in the mood. What a time to find form with the Ryder Cup around the corner.
Hats off to the man. Not his biggest fan, but that play down the stretch was almost tiger-esque.
The balls to play that low shot under the tree on the 2nd playoff hole was like vintage Tiger. Anyone else would have played out sideways!
What a performance.. wow
Dislike him nearly as much as bono
Jealousy is a dangerous thing to live with. Try taking to a therapist. It will do you a world of good.
Why don’t you immigrate.
You missed the green there lad!
That probably says more about you than it does about Rory McIlroy or Bono..
Has he dropped the Nike putter?
Yeah using a scotty
Nike not making clubs any longer
Not a fan of the guy..but that’s awesome golf!
The prize money in golf is nothing short of disgusting.
@TellingItAsItIs:@TellingItAsItIs:Even Rory himself described it as obscene so I don’t know why you’re getting all the red thumbs? Disgusting bthen when rich sport stars like Messi hoard their money in tax havens.
@conor Seems more people think it’s ok for guys to earn these ridiculous amounts of money. Probably the same people that whinge about homelessness and equality. A sad reflection of the times we live in.
@TellingItAsItIs:
Sadder still that people accept that prize money like this is ‘earned’ by the players (not just in golf but in other sports too). It is more than most people will earn in a lifetime. And lots of people seem happy with that. Nobody ever asks where this money comes from and why it is acceptable to redistribute it in this way.
Fantastic performance under a lot of pressure. Is that the biggest sporting cash prize ever won on a day by an Irish person?
Depends on how much Hickey took in. Delaney’s in third right now. On a proper note, no American will want to face Rory at Hazeltine now…
Waste of a good field it is
He might cop on now and be an ambassador of the sport now
Instead of being just another talker. We have enough people who can talk a good game. This is better from Rory, obviously avoiding the Zika virus has done him wonders.
Yeah now we’ll see now if he does that. I’m not sure now if it’ll really change his mind set now though. We’ll see now especially in the Ryder cup now next week now.
Well done, Rory.
I don’t watch Golf becasue I’m under 60 – but I’m sure it was a great shot.
McElroy is third in the world and remains the UK’s number 1.
I don’t play golf but it can be very compelling to watch as it was last night. Pure drama. Mcilroy just went for it compared to Chappell and More even though he had much more at stake than they did in terms of the FedEx cup. Probably didn’t affect him as much as he has so many titles and cash already!
Wont be long before they scrap this Fedex System…DJ beat Rory in every aspect over the Season Stroke Average,Most Wins, Top 5 Top 10s etc etc DJ earned twice (9m) what Rory earned (4m) in the regular events or on an order of merit system, So it seams to only reward a Seasons work over 2 Events…
Same thing happened to mcilroy in 2012
Megazone proformance from RORS coming at a very nice time for the Ryder cup. I guess DJ is back on form bottling it on Sundays, shame I thought after the US Open win he was pasted that now
And yet are rugby heroes are lowered to do stupid ads and tweet about nandos etc for a few euro
I should have been a golfer….
I’m sure if there was a large prize fund at the Olympics, he would have flown faster than a zika mosquito to get there. Can’t stomach him anymore.
Absolutely obscene to have this level of prize money for a single event.