Joe Brolly

[square_ball]

Or the message he got from James McCarthy when the Derry jubilee team were having their day out in the All Ireland Final. McCarthy text him to say how he had fond memories of that team. McCarthy was 3 when Derry won the All Ireland in 1993. . .

[redzone]

He definitely made a story up about Enda Muldoon in the gaelic life. Following week there was a wee statement retracting the story. Can't mind now what it was but it wasn't to serious at the same time

[Main Street]

It's a necessary requirement to use an industrial size narcissist filter while listening to Brolly,  to the rest of his spiel, have a large space where you can dump dubious spoof content.
Is there anything left? surprisingly yes, out of 60 minutes there is a good 20 to 30 minutes of Joe cranking up the populist rage against the system.
I listened to  the podcast  RTE part 1 this morning.
The first minute,
Q: Who brought  you to RTÉ Joe?
A: Well it was just after a league game against Meath, For the first time I had tried contacts lenses and I could actually get rid of the vision blur, I scored 1-6 and was given the motm. (motm? real or self awarded?). I was then interviewed post match and  being in such a vibrant off the scale of happiness mood, I gave such a brilliantly funny interview that the next week I was invited to RTE  and because they just happened to be looking for a brilliantly humorous intelligent pundit to shake things up at staid RTÉ.

Of course the important underlying point is that Joe had played all of his football career with no specs and with a serious enough vision deficiency, just imaging how much more we would have seen of Joe's superlative natural ability had he just been able to see the ball.

After that, the podcast was decent, but why did it take Joe 21 years before he outed RTE et al,  it couldn't be that it was because he was inside the tent? 

[maldini]

He's a bit like David Brent in those episodes where he has a guest on like Roddy Collins or Pat Gilroy
Giggling in the background asking them to tell certain stories

[trailer]

He definitely made a story up about Enda Muldoon in the gaelic life. Following week there was a wee statement retracting the story. Can't mind now what it was but it wasn't to serious at the same time

If he tells a story about something that happened in a pub or at an event, he is always sitting right beside the person.

[LC]

I see JB taking a big swing at MH in the Sindo today.....no surprise there.

[Jim Bob]

Derry have sold their souls in shabby affair
Harte's arrival worst thing to happen since Plantation
JOE BROLLY


It is the worst thing to happen to Derry since the Plantation.
Louth GAA folk are furious. Plans had been made. Clubs had been consulted. Louth chairman Peter Fitzpatrick said he was "left in shock" after Mickey Harte dropped "the bombshell". He said when he told the players at a meeting the following day, "they were devastated".
This is the thing about professional sport. There is no loyalty. But even by the lowly standards of the GAA, this is shabby.
David Jeffrey, the legendary Linfield FC manager, said on William Crawley's Talkback programme last week: "I am surprised with Michael. There has been incredible uproar with him going to Derry. How can Derry people welcome him to their county? If I ever rocked up to the Oval, who from Glentoran would welcome me? And I can assure the Linfield football family I would never, ever go to Glentoran."
It was sickening to listen to.
William: Is this divine intervention?
Jeffrey: Michael looks to see where God is looking to lead him.
William: Which saintly intervention carried him to Derry? (laughter)
Meanwhile, Tyrone people are veering between scorn and amusement. Seán Cavanagh pointed out in his newspaper column that Mickey, when he was a Tyrone man, was strongly opposed to Tyrone Gaels coaching outside Tyrone. Owen Mulligan tweeted, "Just when I was starting to like the c**t."
The Dungiven boys' WhatsApp group has been renamed 'Mickey Harte's Apostles'. In Derry city, the gormless lad in the Derry Girls mural has had his face replaced by Mickey Harte's.
Most depressing is the fact that the younger generation don't see the problem. For them, the soccer language of the new GAA has replaced the old language of community bonds and loyalty.
The GAA has become a tawdry outfit. At least the League of Ireland declares their salaries, perks and transfer fees. In ours, it is a foul travesty. The Derry board is part of the same hypocrisy. It is one thing to sell your soul, but for Mickey Harte?
Like Donald Trump, Mickey is entirely transactional. When he was ousted as manager for life from Tyrone via a players' WhatsApp poll, his disdain for outside coaches evaporated. Turns out it had always been his dream to manage Louth. There he was, a few months later, with his Tyrone assistant Gavin Devlin, posing with the Blackstone Renault boys (of Ryan Tubridy fame) in front of a brand new Renault car and van. All smiles.
Last week, I understand Malachy O'Rourke turned down the Derry job. Within 24 hours, Gavin Devlin (whose assistant manager at Ardboe is Chrissy McKaigue) and Harte had a firm offer on the table. From there, it was only a matter of informing the Louth chairman that all his dreams had come true. As Peter Fitzpatrick said: "Mickey told me he would love to win an All-Ireland before he retires and he thinks that Derry is the best chance for him."
When the GAA investigated under-the-table payments, former GAA president Peter Quinn famously said, "We couldn't even find the tables." Since then, a professional 'elite' has taken over the game. Clubs have lost faith in their own. Counties, apart from the successful ones, have lost faith in their own.
In the last 20 years, six counties have won Sam Maguire. Armagh (Joe Kernan), Tyrone (Mickey Harte, Fergal Logan, Brian Dooher), Kerry (Jack O'Connor, Pat O'Shea, Éamonn Fitzmaurice), Cork (Conor Counihan), Dublin (Pat Gilroy, Jim Gavin, Dessie Farrell), Donegal (Jimmy McGuinness). In that same time, the hurling winners are Kilkenny (Brian Cody), Cork (Dónal O'Grady, John Allen), Tipp (Liam Sheedy, Michael Ryan), Clare (David Fitzgerald), Galway (Micheál O'Donoghue), Limerick (John Kiely). Notice anything?
I have been arguing for 15 years that the GAA should make a simple rule that only a club man can manage his club, only a county man his county. So, club and county eligibility would be precisely the same as for players. This would return the game to amateur status, save clubs and counties a fortune and most importantly protect our ideal.
An outside manager comes in and his priority is not to be beaten. Blanket defending, heavy training, little regard for the overall welfare of our boys. This has helped to produce the boring, unadventurous dross we see at senior level.
Last Sunday, I went to see Crossmolina and Castlebar B in the intermediate championship. Martin Carney is on the line for Castlebar so sweepers are outlawed. What a brilliant game of football it was, end-to-end drama with three superb goals, reminding us what football used to be like. What a contrast to the sterile, hermetic world of senior football: all life coaches and nutritionists and video analysis and stats, at the end of which Dublin or Kerry and Kilkenny or Limerick still win the All-Ireland.
I coached underage teams in my club St Brigid's for 15 years. With passion and imagination and obsession. Loved the boys. Loved being part of their development on and off the pitch. We suffered joy and disaster and death.
Once when I was teaching them the rules of goalscoring, to the vast amusement of the group, I brought a blow-up doll to training (don't ask) and put her in nets. The idea we had was that the goalie is "a figure of fun" who only saves a shot if it is kicked at him or where he wants it to be kicked. Soon, we were firing in goals easy peasy.
By the time they were skilled and understood the game, we won two under 16 championships in a row, then played in two minor finals. The boys later went on to win the under 20 championship in thrilling style.
Then, the senior management post came up and I was invited to 'apply'. Gareth Bradley, John McKenna and me, who had soldiered with these boys since they were six-year-olds in the St Bride's tiny gym (we painted goalposts on the wall) sat before an interview panel of St Brigid's trusted friends and teammates.
We were asked what our budget was. We said "nothing." We were asked what we needed. We said, "The group will sort anything we need." I said we would contest a senior final within 12 months and be champions within two years. I explained how we would do it. We left the room enthused, ready to embark on this labour of love, as we knew there were no other St Brigid's people applying.
A few days later, the chairman, a friend of mine, rang me and said, "This is the hardest phone call I have ever had to make." I put the phone down. Turns out they paid an outside manager. A psychologist and training guru.
It was of course a disaster. Heavy blanket defence. Endless meetings and video analysis. Inspirational messages. Key players drifted away. Mind-numbing football. Rubbing salt into the wound, shortly after he was appointed he rang me to see if I would "sit down with me and go through what we have." He drifted on to somewhere else.
Me? I have never recovered from that. I feel the hurt yet. I cannot be in their company. If I am, I pass myself, as though chit chatting with a stranger.
I go to the games but it is not the same. Something precious has been lost. Something more important than football.

[LC]

Did not realise Chrissy McK was part of the Ardboe set up.  Between still playing at senior level for both codes for S'neil and also being their full time games development officer he is obviously a busy man.

[Wildweasel74]

Don't remember Brolly been overly loyal to Eamon Coleman, so he's hardly in a position to beat on about Mickey Harte.

[Aaron Boone]

He sounded more annoyed at losing out on the St Brigid's job than the Mickey Harte appointment. It was an interesting sideline, you wonder who the journeyman manager was.

[Saffrongael]

He is right about the "life coaches" that seem to have infiltrated GAA in the last year or two, it's absolute bollocks

[ck]

More self sympathy and ego from Brolly. It's always all about him!

I'm sure Mickey Harte won't loose any sleep.

[Derryman forever]

What county us joe from?
What county is St Brigids in?

[ck]

What county us joe from?
What county is St Brigids in?

Exactly the point. The hypocrisy is dripping off the man. He slags off all outside managers but left his own club at the first opportunity.

[From the Bunker]

You get analysists like Brolly and Spillane complain about this one and that one make money out of the GAA. Both have made more money than anyone on the back of the Gaa for decades.