photo-11There are times when working in sport is a genuine pleasure. In fact, most of the time but every now and again it goes up another gear. Last night a group of around 20 sports journalists and your own correspondent got to meet the management of Liberty Insurance as part of the launch of the company sponsorship of the All Ireland Hurling and Camogie Championships.
It wasn’t any old meeting however. We gathered at the Hogan Stand in Croke Park, headed for the dressing rooms and then onto the magical playing surface to start pucking around as though we were Brendan Cummins or Anna Geary. In fact they were there as well to guide us through a set of skills challenges with hurl and sliothar.
Pat O’Brien and Annette Ní Dhathlaoi from Liberty were togged out and not afraid to get stuck in to learn the basic skills of the sports they are backing over the next five years.
Darren Frehill, Brendan O’Brien and Oisin Langan were there, and Marty Morrissey made a late entrance to scoop a best dressed award.
We shot points and goals that will improve in terms of distance and accuracy in the telling over years to come and learned again the challenges that our elite sporting stars have to face with 82,000 fans, us among them, cheering and occasionally condemning them for their efforts.
Points win prizes and in the end it was RTE Producer and Limerick Camogie Captain Aoife Sheehan who collared the goodies from among the media pack but everyone was a winner on an evening to remember, for those who still play and coach and for those whose experience is somewhat less.
In terms of building relationships it takes imagination to create a memorable impression and Liberty, with the help of Killian Burns and his team at Wilson Hartnell PR can be applauded for doing just that.

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