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Oh what a night : Again
by Peter Crowley

On Tuesday the 23rd November, the Munster Supporters Club held the second of their Question & Answer sessions with members of the Munster squad and backroom staff. This time the event was held in Cork at the wonderful surrounds of the Woodford Bar, Daunt Square, who kindly provided those who attended with a fine array of nibbles.

John Kelly in pensive mood
©Inpho/Billy Stickland
Food for thought was provided by John Kelly, Brian Hickey and Damian Mednis, with Pat Geraghty carrying out his MC duties with his customary professionalism. Damian stepped in at the last minute for Jim Williams who had to cry off.

This was a highly informative and entertaining evening and helps to create a better understanding of where we are all coming from. There will be two more Q&A sessions in the New Year (Cork and Limerick) and they are occasions not to be missed.

The questions asked, submitted by the members, ranged from the direct e.g. “How did the players take to the mandate handed down from the IRFU, that all home knockout HEC games must be played at Lansdowne Road ?”, to the bizarre e.g. “My grandmother receives a weekly pension of 98 euros. Her return from bingo has been poor lately and to make up for it she is considering putting the lot on Munster in the Heineken Cup. Will she :

a) Be putting an I.O.U. in the collection basket at Mass
b) Require heart surgery after another near miss?, or
c) Be leaving a box of Viagra on granddad’s pillow?

The panel were united in their condemnation of the actions of the Neath Swansea Ospreys concerning the unfair citing of Marcus Horan. There was general agreement that the best way to deal with things was through the scoreboard in the upcoming Celtic League and Heineken matches against the Ospreys. There was also a question about David Wallace getting Chickenpox before the Semi Final against Wasps, and it is good to see that Munster have been proactive in this area to minimize the threat of this happening in the future.

The frankness of the answers by the panel was refreshing and honest, which isn’t always possible when dealing with a lot of journalists out there. I suppose there would always be a guardedness on their part, lest what they say would be taken out of context. It was good to hear the many interesting comments of Damian Mednis who was previously a conditioning coach with the Queensland Reds, and is very impressed with the Munster set-up and had a good yarn about himself and Tom Jones!

Pat Geraghty kept the evening ticking over nicely and never missed an opportunity for a bit of gentle ribbing of the panel. John Kelly was very coy about the origins of some of his nicknames, while he admitted he was quite sure we only needed 3 tries and 20 points in the Miracle Match because the match programme said it ! Fortunately, Anthony Foley knew better !

Brian Hickey was not immune either to a gentle ribbing “Brian, in the queue at Cardiff airport, you got some slagging from the squad for setting off the metal detector at security and some players were urging the guard to be more vigorous with his searching. Would this be a fineable offence by you in setting off security or are you immune from such fines? What was your last fine for?” No doubt a new nickname for Brian is already being tried out !

Brian Keeps a watchful eye on a recent training session
©Irish Examiner


At the end of the questions submitted, Pat took questions from the floor, one of which concerned the fact that most of the young players getting breaks into the first team, are forwards, while not many backs are breaking through. Brian Hickey took this question on and said that they hope to have games for Academy players (perhaps mixed with some of the older squad players) against better opposition. This could take the form of Development Interprovincial matches or even against the Zurich Premiership A teams. This would be a very interesting series of matches, if and when they happen.

At the end of the evening, MSC Vice-Chairman, John Rochford made a presentation to John, Damian and Brian as a gesture of thanks for their participation. There was a draw on the night for two tickets for the Castres home match (kindly sponsored by Toyota). The winners were Pat Kennedy and Darren Desmond. There were also spot prizes kindly provided by Heineken. So a great evening was had by all and the next two Q&A events promise to provide great entertainment.

by Peter Crowley
   
 

OPERA HOUSE PANTOMIME COMPETTITION

Many thanks to the Cork Opera House who offered a discount for their pantomime, The Pied Piper, on 27 November which was taken up by a good number of members.

They also offered a prize of 4 tickets for the performance on 4th December. These tickets were put forward as a prize in a competition in the last issue of Red Alert.

Pictured is Ken Moore receiving his tickets from Leona Foran of the Cork Opera House.


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