Cathal Dervan, Editor
Two decades and a bit ago you could stroll around Islandbridge and watch Katie Taylor at the top of her sport for free, stand there on the grassy bank and realise the hype was true as she matched pace with skill, brain with brawn.
Tomorrow night she fights for the final time in a Croke Park stadium befitting her greatness and a friend of a friend of mine has been offered two decent tickets for a staggering €1500. Each.
That’s how sport works, it’s how sport evolves, it’s how the stars in the male and female arenas become superstars. It’s how the sporting circle of life rotates.
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Walking away with it…
A decade ago you could have walked into an underage game and watched Bradley Barcola for free. Next Wednesday night a premium package will cost you a small fortune to see him against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League at Anfield.
Liverpool have to get a return on their €125million investment in Barcola any way they can. Eddie Hearn has to earn the rent money for Croke Park - though I can state for a fact that the seller of those €1500 has no connection to the Hearn family and is merely a speculator. Maybe even a tout.
I was one of the few people watching Katie play football in Islandbridge for free all those years ago. My good friend and Star colleague Gerry Callan had told me this story about the finest boxer of her generation combining her love for the beautiful game with an absolute passion for the fight game.
An Irish international already at the time, Katie did indeed have a great story to tell and she was, as Gerry had promised, a standout player and an excellent interview subject.
We’ve met a few times since and she has always been courteous, civil and engaging. But the spark has never left her eye. That single-mindedness that drives all great sports people is always present around the Katie Taylor aura.
It’s what got her to the very top, it’s what helped her rewrite boxing history and good luck to her, tomorrow night and in the future when the gloves are packed away and her life carries on without professional boxing as a constant.
Katie will enter the Jones Road arena tomorrow night a few hours after the FAI Cup’s game of the weekend when St Patrick’s Athletic entertain Bohemians in the quarter-final clash at Richmond Park.
Quite why this game is on in our capital city on the same day that almost a hundred thousand people will be otherwise engaged with the biggest boxing occasion in Irish sporting history is beyond me.
And there are still some tickets available for a lot less than the €1500 my friend was quoted for Croker or the hundreds of Euros it will cost to get to Merseyside to watch Barcola in action next Wednesday night.
Which brings me to the point of this column. Finally. In a week when the English transfer marker officially went mad and led Miguel Delaney to make the very plausible suggestion that it is all built on sand, domestic Irish football started to make a lot more sense.
You may not see the next Barcola if you swap Anfield for Richmond Park tomorrow afternoon but you will see honest footballers minus the vulgarity of an industry that values Enzo Fernandes at close to €150million.
Yes, these players play for the pay cheque. But they also play with passion, commitment and integrity. Like Katie Taylor in Islandbridge all those years ago, they will give everything for the shirt tomorrow and mostly because this is the season defining game for both teams.
The atmosphere won’t beat that at Croke Park and the collective skills on show won’t quite be at the same level as Liverpool v Atletico but that shouldn’t make it any less appealing to the real sports fans out there.
Chris Forrester and Dawson Devoy are easily worth €20 of your time today. Trust me.
As Rory Gaffney hangs up his boots, our League of Ireland man on the beat Darryl Geraghty and editor Cathal Dervan pay tribute to the Galway born legend. Plus Rovers v Shels and all the side stories, the FAI Cup previews and Athlone's dominance continues in the WNL...
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