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Babs third and last year minor was in 1962 so that would tally.

Babs must be coming up on 70 now, Farrell would be a few years younger and Cody wouldnt be 60 yet.

Babs still has a very sharp hurling brain in fairness to him, he plays up to his media image a bit but if you get him on his own it can be very entertaining and enlightening, he is an irascible old boot at times and like all auld fellas everything was better in his day but the fire still burns bright.

I wouldn't be surprised to hear Premior Emperor & homeofhurling announced as selectors with Bord na Mona man on board as the new physical trainer

In fairness i was having a pint with one of the chaps approached to be a selector at the time of the approach and i did say if he wasn't interested i would do it, maybe yer man on the other end of the line heard it and chalked it down as an acceptance If so then i would like to announce that my team will be Paul "Sumo" Shelly-Fitness and conditioning coach, Michael "Babs" Keating-Player relations, Diarmuid Fitzgerald - Forwards coach, John "twinkle Leahy- Backs coach and Timmy "d'unbelievable" Ryan- Manager and psychologist, if we don't win five in a row with that team I'm the pope  

Careful now AZ, spend a bit more time in the land of milk and honey and you will be claiming Obama as a Tipp man

If you need to know the words to our terrace chant, you know the one that goes "TIPP,TIPP,TIPP" give me  a shout

If you see a lad wandering around with a dazzling new set of choppers and a pint of bacardi in his paw muttering about the fair in Shinrone send him back up to Paddy Kennedys, its his round,again.

He never went away you know

He is too busy, now that the son in law is flat out training horses "advising" on the training of horses Babs is the bookie runner for the yard

Kildangan opened a can of whup ass on Toome there at the weekend AZ, 10 points in it at the end, the end of an era for a lot of the Toome boys.

He is indeed Johnney but he could be enticed with the chance to end the famine

Lads i was talking to Cian O'Neill ( trying to entice him back to the Golden Vale with the promise of unlimited limousin bullocks and buttermilk, he must be sick of eating rocks and drinking dew out west by now )  there earlier and for what its worth he told me Mayo won the All-Ireland by a couple of points on Sunday in a tight game, fair play to him he told me the same thing before the semi, so congrats to the land of my Granny and commiserations to the Donegal boys.

Now i seem to have taken a wrong turn there somewhere, could someone give me directions back to the Hurling board there lads, i was sure i took a right at that bent oak...

Tipp is at the quarter final stage this weekend with Mullinahone v Loughmore-Castleiney and Clonoulty Rossmore v Drom and Inch on saturday in Tom Semples field at 18.00 and 19.30 respectively and Thurles Sarsfields v Kildangan and Portroe v Eire og Annacarthy in the same field at the same times on Sunday.

I think he is too long out of top level management Az, isnt he also employed by the Gaa at the moment ?

If O'Shea isn't a goer i know Richie Stakelum is highly thought of among the cognoscenti (and some of us no marks), whether he would be up for the travelling from the big smhoke is another matter, i could offer him a lift i suppose

Dinny is a bit "old school" for the modern game imo Johnney, he reminds me a bit of yer man from Father Ted, Dinnys solution to everything is " is there anything to be said for another lap " , i personally think himself and Paudie Butler should tour the weaker counties 52 weeks of the year preaching the gospel to the unconverted, two finer, more passionate, men to talk about the game i have never come across.

O'Shea hasn't ruled himself out, neither has Nugent ruled him out entirely above nor in the original interview from which the quotes above were taken , there is i believe a current impasse but O'Shea is still the only man approached officially to be manager, there have been others approached with a view to them working with O'Shea, up to yesterday the new team was due to be put forward next Tuesday night to be ratified, one of the chaps approached to be a selector was as much in the dark as everyone else when i spoke to him earlier as he was told O'Shea was already "signed and sealed".

I'm sure most NH followers have a few experiences of Faasel alright! I actually had a decent each way punt on him for that Arkle. He was hampered after Twist Magic and Don't Push It came down at the second last wasn't he?

I remember him beating Alexander Goldrun in a nursery at Listowel when Kevin still had him. Must be nearly ten years ago now.

Faasel was bought, for too much imho, Kevin saw us coming , to win the triumph, we had him schooled over hurdles and he looked the part, we all took fairly fancy prices about him, in fact i put him up here when he was around 25/1 i think, he would have won that Triumph if our jockey had done as instructed but living is learning as they say.

I think in hindsight we sent him to the wrong trainer, at the time the main man in the syndicate had a historical connection with Gordon Richards so he was keen to send Faasel to Nicky, the decision was also influenced by his falling out with Martin Pipe, at the time i had just been enticed on board by a mutual friend  and was happy enough to go along with the decision, Jim semi-retired around three years ago, although some of the horses still run in his name and colours, and myself and a couple of others took over the decisions with regard to where we send the horses from the various syndicates now involved, i have stepped back a bit myself now as i don't have the time since the family arrived and as much as i love the horses they cant compete with Tipp in the summer months

We have a fair spread of trainers now, Pipe, McCain, Henderson and Martin Todhunter in England and Willie Mullins, Gordon Elliot and Eddie O'Grady at home, on the flat we have a couple with Richard Hannon, a couple with Richard Fahey and we have recently sent a couple to Denis Coakley, we like to have a spread as various syndicate members are spread between the two islands and we all like to see our horses run, most of the lads have a few bob and its just a hobby although we actually made a few quid last year selling a couple of our flat horses to Hong Kong, one thing we have learned over the years though is that 90% of this game is guesswork and as long as you accept that fact its great craic.

Actually we have learned two things, the second being that if you want a gamble then Pipe is your only man ( or men if you count the mad hatter still making the decisions in the background

[They might be two rogues but I'd say they are two great horses to be involved with.]

I own a couple of legs in Premier Dane running in the Kerry National today, cant tell ye much really as the ground and trip are unknowns, he is officially well in at the weights and David has him as fit as he has ever been but he wont have encountered ground like this before, we ran him on the soft at Newton Abbott there a couple of weeks ago to see how he would handle it as his previous trainer Nicky Richards always said he hated soft but he sluiced up and AP said he loved the ground, go figure !

His price is baffling though considering the unknowns, we have had a bit of a cut at him ante-post but not anywhere near enough for him to be a single figure price, i can only assume he has been punted because of who his trainer is, he has been a solid performer for us over the years, he was third in the County Hurdle for us five years ago but he is as odd as a box of frogs, like another of ours Faasel, Pipe seems to have found the key to him winning his last three but he is as likely to be pulled up as he is to win.

Good to see some new posters on the racing thread. There used to be good racing discussion over on An Fear Rua so hopefully a few more of the refugees might end up on here. I hope Premier Dane is ok after his fall today. They might be two rogues but I'd say they are two great horses to be involved with.

I thought Teelin Star was quite impressive today in the bumper. He looks a real dour staying chaser in the making and could be one for something like the Irish National in 2013.

Real sign of the times tomorrow with only two runners declared for the bumper. I expect we'll be seeing smaller and smaller fields throughout the NH season.

We have a good few at this stage now Donnellys spread between home and various trainers in England, some of them pretty good but i can say without any hesitation that Faasel has given us the most pleasure ( and pain, three seconds at the Cheltenham festival twice in the Kim Muir and once in the triumph, he was also second in the Bet 365 at Sandown and fourth in an Arkle) over the years, he is a monkey but it will be a sad day when we put him out to paddock, he gave us our best day out in racing the day he won the Aintree hurdle, by god we bet like men that day