Aogan O Fearghail, the GAA president, yesterday delivered his most controversial interview since taking office, suggesting that two of the pundits on RTE’s Sunday Game programme may be guilty of discrediting the association.
O Fearghail reserved his strongest criticism for analysts Joe Brolly, the former All-Ireland winning footballer with Derry, and Colm O’Rourke, the former Meath player who was also appointed by the GAA to manage their International Rules team against Australia in 1998 and 1999, accusing both men of becoming predictable in their negativity.
Speaking in the context of O’Rourke’s recent claim that cynical play follows Tyrone, the defeated All-Ireland semi-finalists, around like “a bad smell”, the GAA president said this piece of analysis was “unhelpful in our sport”.
O Fearghail said he could even understand why Tyrone, who successfully cleared Tiernan McCann last week of an eight-week ban for discrediting the association following a diving incident in their quarter-final victory over Monaghan, may feel an anti-Ulster bias exists towards them from within the media.
Tyrone were hugely critical of the Sunday Game’s coverage of the McCann incident, which preceded GAA disciplinary officials proposing that eight-week ban, which was subsequently rescinded.
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Given the context of the Sunday Game’s status as RTE’s flagship sports programme, O Fearghail’s criticism is significant. Since becoming president in February, the Cavan official has taken the pundits to task, with Brolly in particular criticised for once describing Cavan as ‘the Black Death’ and their play as ‘ugly’.
Asked if the Sunday Game may actually be guilty of discrediting the association, similar to the charge levelled at McCann, O Fearghail nodded in agreement.
“It possibly is, yes, it’s certainly discrediting of the people themselves,” he said before agreeing that the GAA is in a strong position to address the issue when its broadcast rights are next up for renewal. “It might be [discussed]. It could be an issue, yeah.”
With regard to the anti-Ulster bias charge, O Fearghail surprisingly admitted that Tyrone, beaten by Kerry in Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-finals, may have legitimate grounds for feeling victimised in recent weeks.
“I can understand why Tyrone feel, in general, a little aggrieved because I would share that,” O Fearghail said. “At times Ulster counties and Tyrone do feel that they get a particularly negative criticism so [as an Ulster man] I would share that.
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“But at the same time, every county has to accept that if some of their members do something that isn’t correct... in the case you mentioned [the McCann case], the Central Hearings Committee did find that there was a yellow card warranted so therefore it’s proven that something wrong happened.
“New kids on the block do sometimes get criticism. I’ve been coming to All-Irelands since 1973 and Ulster counties generally, always in my memory, just came down the road and got well beaten.
“I was even in - and I shouldn’t have been - dressing rooms where people would come in and say: ‘Well done, lads, you are doing a great job up there, we know how hard it is and keep it up.’ That was unfortunate but now that they (Ulster counties) have started to do well, then there’s a little bit of an edge to some commentary.
“It was a little patronising for a long time when I was involved in the Ulster Council for 25 years. That has since changed and now the Ulster counties do actually do quite well and sometimes they feel that they get a little bit of an attack [from the media] in general.”
It was after the all-Ulster All-Ireland quarter-final between Tyrone and Monaghan that O’Rourke, a two-time All-Ireland medal-winner, was particularly critical of Tyrone.
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“I think some of the Sunday Game commentary is unfair but at this stage it’s predictable and, in fairness, it’s consistent in its negativity,” said O Fearghail. “It’s tiresome, I find, when people talk about smells or nastiness or anything like that.”
Speaking at the launch of the ‘Play to stay with the GAA’ initiative, a programme designed to tackle drop-out rates among 12-16-year-olds in the GAA, O Fearghail caused further surprise when he suggested the punishment for diving may not necessarily be increased for next year’s League and Championship.
It was widely expected in the wake of the McCann affair, when the CHC concluded that a yellow card was the most that could be given to a player for diving, and the eight-week disrepute charge tossed out, that the punishment would be upgraded to a black or red card.
“I don’t think it’s a major issue but it’s not something that anybody likes either,” said O Fearghail. “It’s a judgment call for the referee. Referees I would speak to would sometimes tell me it’s not easy to know if a man is deliberately going to ground or whether he’s helped along the way.
“It’s not an easy judgment to make but when it’s very clear, it’s something that nobody likes to see. I would imagine that there possibly may be a review but I don’t know, I certainly haven’t instigated anyone to review that particular rule.”