Sometimes I just despair at the things that journalists do in order to fill their papers. The campaigns they undertake and the crusades they take on. To be honest they make me sick at times because they don’t care what consequences their actions have once they have a good story.

And I’m afraid to say that usually when they go on a witchhunt they get their man. For whatever reason if they get a notion they will keep going after someone until they bring them down.

At the moment they have the knives out for Brian Kerr and they are not going to stop until they bring him down. It is hard to know what Brian Kerr has done to deserve this. In fact Brian Kerr’s crime is probably that he was too good and accommodating to the media before he took on the job of Irish senior manager.

He was probably too close to them and was always available to them and was always good for a story, couldn’t do enough for them. Then when he took over the top job in Irish soccer things changed. They had to. He couldn’t be as accommodating to them as he was before and he drew away from them.

Wasn’t as pally pally with them and they didn’t like it. They didn’t show it straight away but you could tell that they were only waiting for their opportunity to pounce and exact their revenge. That is what they do. They wait for the chance and then they tear into someone like a pack of bloodthirsty vultures and almost always they come out on top.

I think Kerr has done well and doesn’t deserve this. He took over after Mick McCarthy and he had a lot of pieces of his to pick up. They seem to forget that one of the best things that Kerr did, that I believe few other managers would have been able to do, was to get Roy Keane back in an Irish jersey and all in all I think he has got the best out of a squad which has plenty of weaknesses.

Naturally if Ireland fail to beat the Swiss tonight (Wednesday) and thus fail to qualify for Germany next year then the games that will continue to comeback and haunt Kerr and more than likely cost him his job, are the two games against Israel. A 1-1 draw out there when we led for most of the game and a 2-2 draw in Dublin when we were 2-0 were terrible results. The extra four points that we should have taken out of those games would have seen us well qualified for the finals by now instead of being reduced to a last chance saloon type shootout with Switzerland.

But were those two results the fault of Brian Kerr. I do think that he made a mistake in not putting on a striker for Robbie Keane when he got injured when we were 2-0 against Israel in Dublin, instead of putting on a midfielder and changing the whole team around.

But at the end of the day the manager can only do so much. It is the players on the field who get the results, not the manager but this doesn’t seem to ring true with those who have the knives out. So it looks like it all rests on tonight’s result.

If Ireland don’t win and thus don’t qualify for the World Cup finals then the likelihood is that Brian Kerr will be out of a job, probably returning to his previous role as youth coach but if they win and go on to win their play-off and qualify then the vultures will have to put away their knives till at least after next year’s finals. Now wouldn’t that be great. Come on the boys in green.

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On Sunday next we will all be in Walsh Park to witness a very unique County senior hurling final between De La Salle and Ballygunner.

It is unique because it is De La Salle’s very first County senior final. In recent years the DLS club have enjoyed wonderful success in the underage ranks, all they way up to minor and U-21 but success at senior level has up until now at least, escaped them. But now, after memorable semi-final win over Mount Sion, they have made it to the final and now just sixty minutes separate them from an historic first ever senior title. But Ballygunner will have something to say about that. They have lost the last three finals to Mount Sion so they will be all out to put that record right and capture their first title since 2001, when they went on to win the Munster Club championship.

Naturally De La Salle will go into the game as rank outsiders but that wont bother them and with players like John Mullane, Brian Phelan, Kevin Moran and James Quirke they will give it their very best and I have no doubt that their coach and former Kilkenny All-Ireland winning captain, Eddie O’Connor, will have them ready and raring to go. I was up at their training the other night and the buzz about the place was just brilliant. Young and old were all there savouring the build up for a county final and it was just great to see. Let’s hope we have a great game on Sunday and may the best team win.

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After a week off last week, the Blues are back in action on Friday night when they travel to Bray. After the great win over Bohs in their last home game, they will be hoping that they can go on a bit of a run which could steer them out of the bottom two and away from the dread of relegation. With St Pats losing to Shels the other night the situation now reads like this.

Pat’s are four points ahead of United but the Blues do have a game in hand and Pat’s must also come to the RSC on Friday week. What a game that could be. But first things first and that means a result in Bray on Friday. Bray are just six points ahead of United so technically they are not out of it yet either.

It’s great to see Pat Dolan on board with the Blues for the remainder of the season and already it is plain to see that he has had a very positive effect on the whole club and the supports. All of a sudden there is a chink of light, whereas a couple of weeks ago it looked like a lost cause. Isn’t sport funny?