Joe Brolly

[ONeill]

He was talkin more about Fermanagh.

[Rossfan]

Lave poor oul' Fermanagh alone.
They have God's work to do Saturday afternoon and they're great men for kicking th'oul ball.

[Fear ón Srath Bán]

Arra would you ever go back to your dreary steeple....

Quoting Churchill (sort of), the last bastion of a pathetic bast... 

[Maroon Manc]

Of course players and managers didn't want the black card (or the reds or yellows either no doubt or refs or anything that might keep a biteen of manners on them )
Administrators (through Congress) make the rules , players and managers are required to abide by them.
How many people would vote for Income tax, PRSI etc but Government/Dáil legislate for them.

yeah sure why should we listen to the people actually taking part in the games 
In any case, they were right about the black card , it has been applied completely inconsistently, and done little to reduce cynical fouling.

We should certainly listen to them, but they should not have the power to torpedo any proposed rule change, like they did with the sin bin.
I'll be honest, I don't look forward to inter-county football games any more.
They're usually ugly wars of attrition or one-sided hammerings.
Now hurling is going the same way.
If you ask anyone to pick the best games in football and hurling respectively from the last 5 years most of them will pick Dublin vs. Kerry (2013) and Galway vs. Tipperary (2015).
Both games were end to end, high scoring affairs.
Were there 'errors' in both games?
God yes, plenty of them.
People would argue that these teams were poor defensively and conceded too much, therefore they couldn't be truly 'great games'.
And this is the nub of the problem.

We have tried to eradicate 'errors' from our games and the quickest way of doing that is to eradicate risk.
Eradicate risk and you eradicate skill.
Eradicate skill and you eradicate enjoyment.
Eradicate enjoyment and you eradicate entertainment.
But hey, managers and players will say, "We're in the RESULTS business", and that's fair enough, but the games do not belong to them.
They belong to all of us.
Games like those which I've cited above lift peoples spirits in an age of increasing cynicism.
They make kids want to play the games and they make adults want to watch the games and ultimately, as an association, we're supposed to be all about participation and enjoyment.
Can we arrest the decline of gaelic games as a spectacle?
Possibly not, but it's certainly worth trying.

Agree with your sentiment

[The Trap]

Joe's value to punditry went up immeasurably today. At least he has the balls to call things..........des Dolan thought he was at Euro 2016 talking about feeling a touch in the box and going down.......ffs..........even in soccer you don't get a penalty for being mauled....never mind diving in the square....jarlath Tommy and Marty never get anything right and won't say anything that may be controversial.......it was one of those days when your reputation is enhanced without playing.......well done joe

[rrhf]

and you could imagine what an imaginary Joe in the studio might have said if it had been Mickey Moran managing Mayo today...

[The Stallion]

I thought the pundits were embarrassing on the penalty incident. Not sure how Burns has the brass neck to preach about how to improve the game on one hand while turning a blind eye to blatant cheating like that.

[Beffs]

Really, really, REALLY hope the bould Joe will be on TSG tomorrow. 

[ONeill]

Joe Brolly: Diving, stalling, mean-spiritedness - the Tyrone-Monaghan 'game' was depressing

Thank God for Aidan O'Shea - he rescued a sad day for football, says Joe Brolly

http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/joe-brolly-diving-stalling-meanspiritedness-the-tyronemonaghan-game-was-depressing-31437275.html

[From the Bunker]

Joe Brolly: Diving, stalling, mean-spiritedness - the Tyrone-Monaghan 'game' was depressing

Thank God for Aidan O'Shea - he rescued a sad day for football, says Joe Brolly

http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-games/gaelic-football/joe-brolly-diving-stalling-meanspiritedness-the-tyronemonaghan-game-was-depressing-31437275.html

Ah, you know what they say today's hero tomorrows...................

[rrhf]

Joe and colm are in an awkward position here. Be consistent and fair and they may face another county who doesn't talk to rte. or ignore and their own reputation for speaking out bravely  without fear nor favour is down the toilet.

[Fuzzman]

It was good to see Brolly and Spillane back together for a change at the weekend and actually agreeing that the Galway v Roscommon game was so poor. Yes it was terrible conditions but I found myself agreeing with them that neither team looked like they wanted to risk taking a shot near the end to win the game.

So many teams play with a fear of losing now and have no real leaders or talented players willing to throw caution to the wind and take a man on or take on a hard shot for fear of missing and being reprimanded for losing possession.
Instead you see lots of lateral passing across the 40 until someone makes a turn over.

My own county along with Donegal are high on the list of the "possession is king" attitude. Of course it works when you can break forward at pace but at what cost to our overall skill levels. Saying that Tyrone (and Donegal) have played some great football already this year and hit some amazing points and goals however you would suspect the Ulster final this weekend will revert back to ultra defensive style with so much at stake with the winner probably avoiding Kerry or Dublin should they make the semifinal.

[yellowcard]

Joe and colm are in an awkward position here. Be consistent and fair and they may face another county who doesn't talk to rte. or ignore and their own reputation for speaking out bravely  without fear nor favour is down the toilet.

In fairness Tyrone's decision not to talk to RTE has got nothing to do with any criticism of the counties negative, cynical tactics by RTE. It was a personal decision taken by Mickey Harte which he was fully entitled to make but the blanket ban should not be extended to all of the Tyrone players and mentors imo. Even Alex Ferguson used to at least send out Mike Phelan to do interviews with the BBC.   

[ck]

Brolly: "I think Galway will win the replay cos Roscommon are useless" 

[barking mad]

What does that make Sligo.
Don't bother answering.
I seen what it makes ye.
Can't believe ye are 2/1 outsiders v Clare at home.
And we're useless