BEFORE WE BEGIN, we should make it clear that our own dads are great, we wouldn’t swap them for the world.

Afterall, they taught us valuable life skills such as how to change a plug and where to keep our stick for stirring paint.

However, during the week, in between fighting over who should start for the Lions next week and who would have to stay up for all of Ireland’s US sporting endeavours, talk in TheScore.ie Towers turned to Father’s Day and who our sporting dads would be.

“Ken Egan – you might find yourself on the end of the odd tongue lashing, but he’d never fail to sort out anyone who was giving you hassle. Also, his jackets would obviously be a source of constant amusement.”
- Paul Fennessy

“Fergie would always defend you to your boss/teacher/coach/principal unless you became a burden to the family.”
- Patrick McCarry

“He’s young enough to be my brother, but Paul O’Connell is the ultimate father figure. When he tells you to take out the bins, you don’t put it off and you sure as hell would never ‘talk to your mother like that’.”
- Sean Farrell

” For me, it’d be John Madden because he’d have taught me all about hard-nosed football growing up and I’d inherit all the video game royalties when he shuffles off this mortal coil.”
- Steven O’Rourke

But enough about us, what about you? Is there a sporting paternal figure out there you’d love to have?

If so, tell us why in the comments below:

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