Neither An Fear Rua nor the lads and lassies of Gowlnacalley-John Redmonds have ever shirked from physical confrontation on the field of play...

AFR well remembers the Intermediate final of '31, at half time, when oul' Ned Stapleton - or 'Machine Gun' Stapleton, as we used to call him - stalked into the dressingroom, lifted a player's hurley aloft and shouted: "What use is this at all... Shure there's no blood on it!". On another occasion, the same gentleman enquired of a downcast player if his hurley was made out of glass. The bemused young man meekly replied that it was not, whereupon 'Machine Gun' riposted: 'Well, you look like as if you're afraid it'll break on ya out there!'. Ned's remarks recalled a time when no quarter was given - nor none asked - on gaelic playing fields, but games were played fairly, if tough.

However, even An Fear Rua blanched at some of the phone calls and letters he received from friends in the Decies after the debacle that ended this year's Waterford County Senior Hurling final. Alright, for the pedants among his readers, AFR records that the final score was Ballygunner 1-18, Mount Sion 2-10. A more accurate score might read Ballygunner 3 fists thrown and 5 hurleys lashed out, to the Monastery club's 5 fists and 7 hurleys... Or maybe, Mount Sion 2 send-offs, Ballygunner 1. I mean, why bother trying to keep score of old-fashioned things like goals and points, when you can be splittin' someone's head open? Sure, everyone in Ballygunner and Mount Sion knows there's more skill involved in a well-placed hurley to the skull, than to sending in a nicely taken '65 over the bar, against the wind… Maybe, oul' Synge got it wrong in his 'Playboy'. Maybe 'twas a good belt of a hurley Christy Mahon gave his father, not a loy!

Because the final ten minutes of what should have been a show case of Waterford hurling became a running brawl involving players and spectators, with skirmishes occurring up and down the sideline. Players, officials, mentors and spectators all mucked in to this 1999 'Battle of Walsh Park'. A misfortunate Garda inspector and sergeant, stationed near the players' tunnel, had to intervene, though they might have been better advised to give one or two of the ringleaders a good Uzi up the backside.

During the disturbance, the referee sent off a player from each side and - like an eejit - proceeded to play ten minutes of injury time!. Cnoc Síon emerged clear winners in this phase of the game through the earlier sending-off of Roy McGrath. In fairness, afterwards, the County Chairman, Paddy Joe Ryan, made clear his disgust and said there would be a full investigation.

In ainm Dé agus Muire na nDéise, what are they thinking about at all below in Waterford? Are they mad? An Fear Rua has seen it all before and he fears this may harbinger a return to the bad old days of Waterford hurling, when the county became more renowned for brawn than for brain on the playing fields of Munster. A county final should be an occasion when the best in the county's skills are put on display; when the crowds should leave the field thinking there's the makings of a good county panel from the pick of the two teams. Instead, internecine warfare of a Neanderthal type appears to have broken out in Waterford. How can players from two famous clubs like this pull together effectively on a county panel if this how they behave in the county final?

Poor Gerald MacCarthy is going to have his work cut out for him in the year 2000, based on this sorry performance. God be with the days of an All Ireland final when Paddy Barry of Cork and Nicky Rackard of Wexford manfully cast aside their hurleys, exchanged a few classic boxing jabs and then resumed the game as if nothing had happened. Some of the inter-county 'stars' going the roads these days wouldn't be fit to polish the boots of either of the two stalwarts just mentioned, let alone stand on the same playing field as them.

Of course, Waterford is not the only county where this type of aberrant behaviour is becoming almost commonplace in the GAA. During the Kildare Senior Football Final on the same day, players from Allenwood and Sarsfields shaped up to each while the Allenwood captain, Niall O'Callaghan, was on the ground receiving medical attention. An Fear Rua thinks it is no coincidence that the two counties where this happened are both places that went off the GAA radar screen this year, following a flash in the pan in last year's championships. Mark my words, any county that allows such nonsense to intrude into its county finals will pay the price in inter-county competition.

Whatever the background to it, the dastardly attack in Thurles on Kilkenny inter-county star (in this case, the term is amply justified), PJ Delaney, will shock all decent people, who will profoundly hope that the perpetrators will quickly be brought to justice. An Fear Rua does not like saying this: But if decent Tipperary folk do not quickly assert themselves, the town of Thurles is in grave danger of becoming a by-word for violence and ugliness in GAA circles. That would be a sad juncture indeed for the town that gave us no less a man than Archbishop Croke himself. But even the statue of that worthy Gael in the Square must have been disgusted at the rowdy scenes enacted at the end of the recent under-21 game between Tipp and Clare.

After the cowardly attack on PJ, there were media reports that he had been hit with either a hurley or a base ball bat. An Fear Rua would say that the way the Tipp. Hurling team have been playing over the past two years some of them boyos would have difficulty telling the difference!

God speed PJ Delaney back soon to the whole of his health! We look forward to the day when he will repay this appalling act in the way all true Gaels would applaud - by leading Kilkenny to victory over Tipperary in next year's All Ireland Senior hurling final. Then maybe the Tipp lads could concentrate on the game they know best ... Baseball…