We guess he won’t be supporting the Cats today
You’d imagine that as head of the FAI, John Delaney’s sole focus would be on football and all things related to it, such as schoolboy leagues, amateur action, the Irish set-up and everything else.
Not so, according to one of Kilkenny’s finest defenders.
Paul Murphy has been spilling the secrets behind the Waterford native’s love affair with hurling, and his secret party piece ahead of today’s All-Ireland semi-final with Waterford in Croke Park.
It seems that the head of the FAI has a close relationship with the ‘Stripey Men’ going back a few years now, and if you want to test out his hurling knowledge then he certainly won’t let you down.
Murphy, a three-time All-Ireland winner, has revealed that Delaney has an encyclopaedic knowledge of hurling stretching back over 40 years.
For all the things that you hear about the way the FAI is, I only know him from a hurling point of view. What’s surprising, and what not a lot of people would know, is that his knowledge of hurling is amazing. He has a party piece that he can name every team that has won an All-Ireland since 1970-something, every team in a row. I wouldn’t be able to do that.
Murphy explains that Delaney and several Kilkenny hurlers would be quite friendly after a chance meeting in 2013 at St Kieran’s college in the Marble City. According to the Irish army soldier, Delaney is a ‘big Kilkenny hurling fan, his family and his father are big Kilkenny fans’.
He also revealed that Delaney is often in touch with players before games
You might get the odd text from him here and there wishing you the best of luck.
We’re not sure if the FAI chief is going to today’s game, but whatever the result it seems that Delaney is going to be smiling.
H/TÂ Irish Mail On Sunday
