Pic of the day

GAA players might not be professionals, but they still have to put up with some petty abuse from supporters. This angry fan letter delivered to Lar Corbett this morning is taking things a bit too far.

The 2010 Hurler of the year has had something of a turbulent 2012. He retired from the Tipp panel at the start of the year due to work commitments only to rejoin his former colleagues ahead of the Munster Championship campaign.

Corbett’s performances in a new withdrawn role attracted a fair degree of criticism, with the nadir coming in the bizarre sideshow during the comprehensive All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Kilkenny, when he followed Tommy Walsh around Croke Park, despite the fact that Tommy was already marking Pa Bourke and Corbett himself was being marked by Jackie Tyrell.

Lar was vilified in the aftermath of the match and indeed, some of the criticism was a little overboard. Two months on from that defeat, it seems as if some people are still eager to stick the knife into the Thurles man, as was evident in the petty letter delivered this morning to Corbett, who posted a picture of it on his Twitter page.

In the letter, the fan calls Corbett “a clown”, has a go at his so-called “silly behaviour”, ridicules his impending autobiography and says that he doesn’t expect Corbett’s pub to be busy next year.

Corbett was right to ask if these are the actions of a “genuine supporter”, but we hope we’re not wrong in assuming that it was the act of one of the senseless minority of GAA fans.

Between the huge ban dished out to the Limerick GAA fan and now this, it hasn’t helped the reputation of the supporters of our native games.

It must have been a rude awakening for Lar to find the letter in the post this morning, but hopefully he can brush it off as a once-off and realise that there are just some petty people out there.