Grimley tongue-lashing for Brolly and Co.

[Drumanee 1]

did any of you actually listen to what brolly said?when he made the remark about not even a cousin of a footballer he was refering to himself during a match where the manager of the opposing team shouted this to his marker.

[GrandMasterFlash]

At the end  of the day Brolly talks that kind of talk and I don't pay too much attention to the details of his comments but O Rourke, as a teacher with lads of his own who play the game should have more respect about lads playing an amateur game and spend less time commenting on their appearance, as if it's any of his business or relevance what he/she looks like!

[anglocelt39]

I'm coming at this from the very narrow perspective of a suffering Cavan supporter so what I'm offering about these guys relates to last Sunday, I don't spend much of july and august watching their every move. Brolly is a smart arse and what I heard him say about the cousins of county footballers was out of order. If O Rourke wanted to comment on appearances he could have had a go at the head of his partner in crime, what the hell did he look like.

From a very narrow cavan mans perspective, if somebody had said something similar to Joe's comment to me in the boozer last Sunday night I feel like I would not have had huge grounds for a comeback. If they had put it in more considered terms such as........."there were about four lads who lined out who might not have made it into the county panels of the top eight teams in the country, whether on grounds of age, fitness, lack of size, ability levels or a combination of some/all of these factors" again I would have had difficulty staging a spirited response. But I suppose that reflects the fact that we have come from a fairly low level and will have our hands full holding our place in Division 2 next year.

Now I am the old fashioned sort of Cavan man who would always like to see O Rourke as a right Ignorant cnut from that place, however one thing he said last weekend was absolutely spot on and needed saying, probably about both sides but particularly our lot. The absolute obsession with picking defenders on the basis of what we think they can do with ball in hand-the idea of picking a defender who actually defends at club level, sticks to their man like shit to a blanket and can actually put in a forceful tackle has totally gone out the window hence Brolly's licence to use the traffic cone analogy. Without even thinking over the past 10 years, Cavan defenders who plied their trade further up the park at underagae level/club level-Peter Reilly, Brides, Forde, Cahill, Fannin, Flanagan, Mckeever, am sure I'm missing a few others.

I got the feeling Spillane could barely help himself from getting into it on Sunday's highlights programme. Perhaps a mixture of Nicky Brennans warnings and Brolly's performance earlier in the day made him keep his powder dry for the moment.

[IolarCoisCuain]

I think we might be putting the blame on the wrong man here boys.

What Brolly said was completely out of order, and Grimley was right to have a go at him about it. O'Rourke can be just as bad. But it's Michael Lyster that's running the show. He chairs the discussion, and he could even be head of sport at RTÉ as well. It's up to him to set the tone for the discussion and he's plainly setting it wrong.

Now, you hear him getting the boys to row back sometimes, but all that does is confuse the issue. RTÉ should have an editorial policy about how these games are going to assessed. These are our national games - they deserve to be treated as being as important as they are. And having the two boys up there will smart-alec licences do the games a great disservice.

Although if we're relying on Lyster to tighten the ship, we might need to look elsewhere, as his remarkable Aertel piece shows: http://www.rte.ie/aertel/411-01.html

[downredblack]

There is an article about Brolly in the Indo today , Can someone post it please ?

[ildanach]

Irish Independent:

Taking the high ground with low blows
Wednesday May 16th 2007

SO then Joe, who is this famous cousin? And which of the Cavan and Down players aren't even distantly related to him?

As an eminent barrister, Joe Brolly's wig would twitch of its own volition as he jumped indignantly to his feet to protest to the judge if his clients were hit with such a sweeping generality.

This time, however, Joe was on the judge's bench, studying the evidence put before him by Down and Cavan in last Sunday's Ulster championship opener and bringing his damning verdicts to viewers on RTE's Sunday Game 'live' afternoon programme.

His Worship wasn't impressed. Several of the players were, he concluded grandly, not even the cousins of a county footballer. Obviously they're the best Cavan and Down have, because otherwise Donal Keoghan and Ross Carr would have replaced them with their omni-talented cousins.

So what Joe was really saying is that many of the Cavan and Down players aren't as good as the best from some other counties. We know that. Down haven't won a competitive game for over a year, when they beat Cavan in the first round of the Ulster championship.

Cavan were in Division Two this season, from where admittedly they won promotion before being well beaten in the semi-final by Roscommon, who in turn lost the final heavily to Meath, so the Breffni boys are scarcely All-Ireland material either.

Actually, they and Down are each priced at 125/1 to win the title, territory which doesn't interest Sam Maguire when he's making his winter resting arrangements.
So what did Brolly expect last Sunday? That mid-table teams would suddenly blossom into top-of-the-range combinations?

Besides, as pure entertainment, which after all is important, the game had high added value, as indeed did Longford v Westmeath.

I make the point because the analysis on RTÉ television's Sunday coverage - both in the afternoon and at night - is hugely influential in shaping public opinion. Much of it is fine but it also suffers from a serious flaw in that the vast majority of analysts in both football and hurling are former All-Ireland winners.

Kevin McStay (Mayo) and Martin Carney (Mayo and Donegal) are the only ones who come to mind as not having achieved All-Ireland senior success either as a player or manager, although both did perform at the highest level, Tommy Lyons didn't preside over a senior county All-Ireland win, but was successful at club and U21 level.

Colm O'Rourke, Joe Brolly, Tony Davis, Anthony Tohill, Dara Ó Cinnéide, Paul Curran, Bernard Flynn, Cyril Farrell, Donal O'Grady, Michael Duignan, Pete Finnerty, Anthony Daly and DJ Carey are all All-Ireland medal winners. The influence of medal winners even extends to the presenting role, with Pat Spillane chairing the Sunday night programme.

There's no doubting their knowledge or their high recognition factor, but are we to believe that the highest achievers as players and/or managers have a monopoly on informed views and the ability to express them articulately? Effectively that's what RTÉ is telling its viewers.

It's a total cop-out and is robbing the coverage of a vital balance. There are several well-known ex-players who didn't reach the All-Ireland peak, but whose take on the games would be just as valid as those who have the precious medals.

In certain circumstances, it would be whole lot more valid as they would have a greater empathy across the broad spectrum of championship activity.

As a barrister,

Joe Brolly's wig would twitch of its own volition as he jumped to protest if his clients

were hit with

such a sweeping generalityTwo other points on the 'The Sunday Game'. They're persisting with the journalistically anodyne (but probably lucrative) text nonsense where, by way of example, Liam from Letterkenny helpfully suggests that Donegal will win the All-Ireland this year, or Willie from Wexford thinks the referee made some bad mistakes (against Wexford or course). Now those really add to the store of human knowledge!

The Sunday Game has also introduced a fans' slot, where some camera-happy supporters are invited to offer their views on air, usually along the lines of: "We'll show them, boyo" or "go on you good thing". It's almost as embarrassing as Ireland's performance at the Eurovision song contest.

The only difference is whereas the song contest comes once a year, we'll have this every Sunday night.

[Uladh]

There was a good article in the indo on grimley also on sunday or monday ildanach, if you're able to post that too?

[downredblack]

Cant wait to see what he has to say for himself in the GL .

[rosnarun]

The real problem sunday was that the teams were not fit enough. the number of players that went down with cramp make it look like All-ireland gols. when any of these team come up against even a limited to properly fit tram ie dublin they will be hammered in the last 15 mins despite haveing much better players

[realredhandfan]

I fear Brolly has a limited lifepan.  you can only shite through your mouth so long.  Makes a change form running down his leg.  

[full back]

The real problem sunday was that the teams were not fit enough. the number of players that went down with cramp make it look like All-ireland gols. when any of these team come up against even a limited to properly fit tram ie dublin they will be hammered in the last 15 mins despite haveing much better players

What do you mean by the above.

Agree with RRHF, Brolly IMO has overstayed his welcome.He was different when he first came onto the scene, but he is just a complete w4nker now

[North Longford]

Lads there is a little bit of misunderstanding in relation to cramp and it is not correct to say that it is solely down to fitness. Quite often the fittest of guys will get cramp . How often do you actually see a big lump of a heavy fella going down with cramp...never saw Niall Sheridan with it......A brief description of cramp

Leg cramps are painful contractions of the muscle that happen involuntarily (i.e. without the athlete intending then to happen). Leg cramps affect most people training hard, particularly running at some point and a common site for leg cramps is the calf muscles.

Although the exact cause of leg cramps has not yet been successfully determined there are thought to be a number of possible causes including:

Dehydration (not taking on enough water, especially in hot conditions).
Low potassium or sodium (salt) levels.
Low carbohydrate levels.
Very tight muscles.


So no mention of fitness.
Obviously taking on extra fluids/potassium/carbohydrates are ways to mitigate against and will help. Running more probably won't....you'll only end up getting cramp.!! if you haven't sorted out the root of the problem.
There was a period in my playing career when I would suffer from cramps every now and then and I can assure everyone it coincided when I was most fit and was probably training 5 times a week. Haven't had them in years because I am not fit enough to run enough during a game to lose enough fluids.
Chances are that the guys getting cramp either need to look at some of the possible causes above and also they probably actually ran more than their colleagues.
Jamie Carragher is a prime example. Always the first player to get cramp with Liverpool. Nobody could suggest he is the least fit of that team

[Estimator]

Lads, the fact is, you'll all still tune in the the Sunday Game this week, to see what the two gimps have to say! I don't think anyone here will change the channel when the analysising is going on!

[the Deel Rover]

Lads, the fact is, you'll all still tune in the the Sunday Game this week, to see what the two gimps have to say! I don't think anyone here will change the channel when the analysising is going on!

Well i wont be watching them this week because i'll be at the Galway mayo match, but from now on the minute those two langers come on the tv  i'm changing the channel. Rte should look at bringing podge and rodge on as anaylsts they would be easier to watch and make more sense than the two muppets they have on at the moment 

[ildanach]

uladh,
looked through the indo there now for the last few days and can not see it, they have changed the unison format to day, so maybe it is not up yet. I will check later again