GAA president Aogán Ó Fearghail has hit out at jibes that his native Cavan’s style of play is ugly, labelling the comments “upsetting” and “nasty”.
The GAA figurehead didn’t mention Joe Brolly by name, but was clearly referring to the comments of The Sunday Game analyst, who was yesterday given a public dressing down by his employers at RTÉ. That stern rebuke was in relation to Brolly’s claim before Cavan’s Ulster Championship defeat to Monaghan that their style of play was “as ugly as Marty Morrissey”.
RTÉ’s group head of sport Ryle Nugent said it was an “ill-conceived attempt at humour” that was “inappropriate and extremely hurtful”.
Nugent added: “Joe is fully cognisant of the fact that similar comments in any future broadcast cannot and will not be tolerated. Joe Brolly has spoken at length with and offered a heartfelt apology to Marty Morrissey, which was graciously accepted.”
Speaking earlier in the day at the launch of Newstalk radio’s Championship coverage, Ó Fearghail was also critical of Brolly’s remarks. The GAA president spoke about the attack on Cavan’s style specifically and took serious issue with Brolly’s description of their play as “ugly”.
“Certainly, the players in Cavan and the administrators in Cavan try to promote a game and, having it described as ugly and all of that, that’s upsetting and that’s nasty,” said Ó Fearghail.
“I think the media does need to be objective, properly objective and see when things that are good. And if things need to be criticised then absolutely, have a go.”
Former Mayo football manager James Horan agreed that criticism of last weekend’s game was “way over the top”.
“If you take the main games that have been shown this year, the ones that were televised, Tyrone and Donegal and Cavan versus Monaghan last weekend, I thought they were fascinating games, very good games played by two very good teams with a lot of skilful players, close affairs,” said Horan.
“There was everything in them. There were battles, there were hard hits, there were great scores, everything. If you take those games on their own even, I think it’s been a great start to the Championship.
“What I sometimes struggled with is that you see these matches, you watch the games yourself and then sometimes you look at what the analysis is and what some of the media say and, for me, there is an inbalance sometimes in that. There might be one negative or two negative things in the game and that’s all that’s focused on in general commentary.”
Horan said negative analysis wasn’t a big problem when he was in charge of Mayo, but admitted he feels for Ulster sides who are regularly put under an intense spotlight.
“There’s always been a lot of focus on northern football particularly, from Tyrone in the noughties right through to Donegal,” he said.
“Some of it is unwarranted, some of it is fair. Now, some of the games have been horrible to watch but I think, on the whole, there’s been a lot more good games than bad games. If you read the paper, that’s not reflected all the time.”
Horan will work as a radio pundit this summer having been involved in the last four Championships with Mayo. The two-time All-Ireland final boss said he sees himself returning to management at some stage.
“Ah, I probably see myself at some stage, yeah,” he said.
But asked if he could see himself managing against his former Mayo players, he shook his head.
“I just couldn’t see that at the moment, no, it’s not something I’ve considered or would consider.”
