The news that Tipp have appointed John O’Brien as their captain for the coming year even though he’s out injured till July just reawakened my thoughts on the whole county captain issue. Particularly the idea that the current county champions get to choose the captain (as is the case with Tipp).
It makes no sense to me. Surely the captain is meant to be an inspirational leader not some token gesture to the clubs. Is winning the county title and representing your county in the club championship not enough of an honour for clubs? In several instances the county champions have little representation on the county team and you end up with someone who spends most of his time on the subs bench (or sideline) being captain. You want you captain to be a strong guy that the team looks up and listen to and who’s there to lead the team in the heat of the battle.
I know Kilkenny, Tipp and Cork (I think?) take this route so based on that you couldn’t exactly say it doesn’t work but the very top teams (i.e. Kilkenny and Cork at the moment) would probably win regardless of who captains them.
Ger Loughnane made sure to choose his own captain for his new reign in Galway. He always picked a great captain down in Clare so one can assume that David Collins will be another good one and who knows, he may even be lifting Liam McCarthy at the start of September!
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