Great Hurling Nicknames 15 - Goggles, Gorta and Sparrow among those to make the cut

WHAT have Goggles, Sambo, Jobber, Fingers, Hopper, Gorta and Sparrow got in common? Apart from a line in nicknames that veers between the surreal and the ridiculous?

You’re right: they were all mighty stickmen. So, in the week of the All-Ireland SHC final, may we present our Great Hurling Nicknames 15.

The aforementioned magnificent seven all make the team, along with the iconic ‘King’ Henry Shefflin and ‘The Rock’ O’Sullivan. We have an All-Ireland winner from last year - Bubbles O’Dwyer - and a veteran talisman who hopes to join that elite band on Sunday, Waterford’s Brick Walsh.

To avoid confusion, we must explain our ‘keeper - the late, great ‘Tony Reddin’. Yet that was not his actual name: he was born Martin Charles Reddington but the family were known locally as the Reddins and it stuck. His pet name was Thaudy which morphed into Tony. Eureka!

SUBS: James ‘Cha’ Fitzpatrick (Kilkenny), Patrick ‘Bonner’ Maher (Tipperary), Diarmuid ‘Gizzy’ Lyng (Wexford), Olcan ‘Clute’ McFetridge (Antrim), Paudie ‘Pebbles’ O’Sullivan (Cork), David ‘Dotsy’ O’Callaghan (Dublin), Seánie ‘Telly’ Tobin (Limerick), Eamon ‘Trollier’ Dillon (Dublin).

MANAGER: Michael ‘Babs’ Keating (Tipperary). SELECTORS: ‘JBM’ aka Jimmy Barry-Murphy (Cork) and Dan ‘the Man’ Shanahan (Waterford).