If blood is thicker than water then it can’t have been easy for Kieran Kingston, head against heart, to drop his son Shane for Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final against Kilkenny.
In light of that, GAA Hour pundit Paul Murphy has praised the Cork manager’s integrity, his honesty and the principles that convinced him to make a decision based on what he felt was the best interests of the county’s senior hurling team. Not only does it reflect well on Kingston senior’s fairness as a manager, in light of how he carried himself on Sunday, it’s also a tremendous reflection on the character of his son Shane, who instead of sulking made the very best of his role as a substitute.
“I thought about it going away from the game,” said the former Kilkenny corner back.
“I thought about how hard a decision it must have been for Kieran Kingston to do that and drop his son. I mean, you can say about votes or whatever, but at some stage, Kieran Kingston has to make the decision that he’s dropping his son. The buck stops with him.
“The integrity of Kieran Kingston to do that, I think it’s admirable. The character of Shane Kingston to come on, to not sulk, to score 0-7 as a sub, to completely lift his team. But overall, the integrity of Kieran Kingston to do that, that’s incredible. It’s incredible what the pair of them did,” added Murphy.
Having made his introduction in the 42nd minute, the Douglas forward didn’t dilly-dally in turning this game on its head. By the 52nd minute, he had three points to his name and it was just a minute later, as he jogged towards the sideline for the second water-break, when the father met the son with a clap and a half to the helmet.
Watching on from his home in Galway, it was at that moment when Damien Hayes realised there was something different about Cork out there. Something that told him they weren’t going to lose this game.
“There was a defiance to that clap,” said the Portumna man.
“He was hurling well. It’s not a case that he was only on the team because his father was the manager. He was pulling his weight, he had a goal in every game. Maybe it went to a vote among the management team and so it went. But all I’ll say is when you’re not happy with not getting picked, there’s only one thing you can do and that’s to show them on the pitch, that’s exactly what Shane Kingston did,” he continued.
Having been dropped while his father Martin was a selector on Laois and Portlaoise teams, Wooly praised Kingston’s response to the blow.
“It’s not a nice atmosphere at home in the house. There would have been tension in that house like there had to have been, no player wants to have been dropped. You don’t want to talk about it but you’d like to talk about it. But in fairness to him, he talked about accepting it and he obviously did accept it,” added Parkinson.
It’d take a brave father to leave him off the next day!.
