Brolly Goes Buck Mad

[Fuzzman]

Anyone know why he wasn't on the Show on Sunday?
Was he just on holidays or was there a darker reason?

[Drumanee 1]

Riddled with inaccuracies and exaggerations.

where?

still waiting

[Ping Pong Santa]

That article was great reading.

Good man Joe!

[Maguire01]

Riddled with inaccuracies and exaggerations.

where?

Tyrone v Dublin game in Healy park was in 2006 not in 2007

Hardly significant in the argument.

A poster asked for an example of an inaccuracy..

The initial reference to inaccuracies was clearly attempting to undermine the credibility of the piece.
If the inaccuracy was in relation to whether something had actually happened or not, it would be relevant. The fact that a date was out by a year is neither here nor there.

[Maguire01]

Winning an All Ireland is success, anything else is failure.

What a load of bull.

[orangeman]

Reading Paddy Heaney, today, Frank Mc Guigan seems to have had a right go at Joe at the discussion forum held by Cookstown Fr. Rocks last week.

[jodyb]

Anyone know why he wasn't on the Show on Sunday?
Was he just on holidays or was there a darker reason?

Was wonderin about that myself. Did the other two boys spit the dummy out?

[jodyb]

Reading Paddy Heaney, today, Frank Mc Guigan seems to have had a right go at Joe at the discussion forum held by Cookstown Fr. Rocks last week.

Tell us more OM

[DennistheMenace]

Does Brolly still play football for St Bridgid's  in Belfast ?

[orangeman]

Reading Paddy Heaney, today, Frank Mc Guigan seems to have had a right go at Joe at the discussion forum held by Cookstown Fr. Rocks last week.

Tell us more OM

Seems like Frank got Joe to admit that he got paid to go to New York to play a match in the 90's !!!!!!!!!!!

[Zulu]

An even greater analyst than Colm O'Rourke said once, and I quote, "Let he that is without sin cast the first stone." You know, when I think of it, if anyone fits that bill, it's me. But I don't complain. These things happen from time to time when young men gather to chase a ball around the pitch. If they didn't have the passion for it, then we wouldn't have a game at all.

This line sums up exactly why that article is utter rubbish, Brolly is basically saying that because there has always been violent acts in football it is ok for it to continue and he then laughably asserts that anyone who played football in the past isn't 'sinless' enough to comment. It was a tack adopted by some posters on this board as well when they tried to deflect criticism on the basis that some posters came from counties that were also involved in unsavory incidents, even going as far back as 1983 to make their point for Christs sake. This isn't a Monaghan, Derry or Ulster issue but is a national issue and we'd all be better served if people didn't simply wrap their county flag around them play dumb. By the way there was plenty of wrestling off the ball in the Tipp/Cork game yesterday but hurling seems to be held to lower standards than football and could do with facing up to a few home truths as well.

Zulu will you not be satisfied til we all hold up our hands like alcoholics at an AA meeting and admit our games are sick?

Well like any alcoholic admiting you have a problem is the first step in fixing it. The Derry/Monaghan game wasn't the worst game of football ever played and many other games down through the years have had unsavoury incidents, as Joe points out ,but he then ridiculously suggests that this shows the Derry/Monaghan game was no big deal!!! And amazingly we have lads on here who think it was a good article, that type of thinking is my problem, I mean even the Armagh/Tyrone game had a high foul count and only for Pat Mac allowing adfvantage on a number of occasions it would have been even more. That means that out of the championship games played so far over half have had a high foul count, is that the type of game we want? I love to see hard tackling, not dragging a player down, I love to see quality scores, not frees in the middle of the field, I love to see courage, not cowardice and I love to see fast flowing football, not stop/start broken play. But that's just me, clearly many Ulster folk want the exact opposite to me.

[DennistheMenace]

I want a win.

[Our Nail Loney]

To put it Frank-ly, 'The King' still reigns in Tyrone

Against the Breeze

By Paddy Heaney

02/06/09

Pulling no punches: Frank McGuigan's ability on the pitch meant he was always marked out for attention, and his straight-talking views on the modern game ensure that he is still well worth. Picture: Irish News Library

Last Wednesday night was the first time that I ever really met 'The King'.

Our meeting took place at the Greenvale Hotel.

Following the arson attack on their clubhouse, the Fr Rock's club in Cookstown organised a Championship Chat Show.

Paddy Hunter, the host for the evening, introduced the crowd to me, Joe Brolly,

Jarlath Burns and "the King himself – Frank McGuigan".

We Irish have a fondness for the wayward genius. The fuzzy black and white shots of George Best skipping around José Henrique in 1968. Paul McGrath, so imperiously cool against the Italians and the sweltering heat of USA '94. And the teary Alex Higgins in his silky green shirt in 1982. All these images are stamped on our collective consciousness.

Somewhere in there too is the sight of Frank McGuigan scoring 11 points in the summer of 1984. And let's just say it again for the sake of saying it: five with the right, five with the left, and one with the fist.

The ability of these men to rise above the ordinary grants them an almost superhuman quality in the sporting arena.

However, when they are removed from the stage where they are in such command, it's also the inability of these men to live ordinary, mundane lives which makes them so very human.

Having met Frank McGuigan, it's easy to see how he could get more than a little frustrated and bored with the tedium and trivialities of everyday life.

Frank has little truck with the games people play. He's probably not a man who specialises in small talk about the weather. Nope. Frank just says exactly what he thinks. And some of Frank's thoughts managed to silence a sometimes raucous crowd in the Greenvale Hotel.

Let me set the scene. The discussion didn't start until almost 10 o'clock. About half the patrons watched the Champions League final on the big screen.

Mostly young men, they enjoyed a few pints over the three hours before the microphones were turned on.

A more elderly and sober audience then took up the seats around the edges. It was a strange mix. The younger audience, joking and cheering, occupied the seats on the dance floor in front of the panel, while the more reserved and reticent looked on from the periphery. It was like facing a crowd with a split personality.

The night got started with a question about the GPA. Are you for or against them?

Joe Brolly was first out of the stalls and he provided a lyrical and pastoral soliloquy about the defining qualities of the GAA.

Joe said the GAA is about community, and place, and being part of a shared tradition. "Money would spoil it," said Joe.

Frank was having none of it. He got stuck in to Joe. Frank said the only reason Joe didn't like the GPA was

because no-one asked him to run it.

He said it was all right for boys like Joe who are

"making a fortune of money". Frank said it was different for ordinary players, some of whom were currently out of work.

Frank then bellowed at Joe (who was sitting beside him) to confess that he had accepted money ($300 as it turns out) to play football during a weekend in New York. Joe came clean. The barrister was in the dock.

The crowd, that was initially all banter and heckles, was slightly shaken by the sheer ferocity of the argument.

Sensing the need to soften the mood, Paddy Hunter moved to more light-hearted subjects, such as the violence in Celtic Park the previous Sunday.

Brolly said the rough and tumble in Celtic Park was nothing compared to the Masters game between Derry and Dublin that was played in Glen the day before.

"Seamus Downey and the full-back were beating the hell out of each other after five minutes," said Joe.

Derry won 0-14 to 0-7. "And how many points did you score, Joe?" asked Frank. "He wants someone to ask him," he said intuitively.

"Seven," said Joe with an even wider grin.

At the break, Frank and Joe drank tea and chatted

merrily before the ball was thrown in for the second half.

Frank didn't take long to get back into the groove. What delighted and infuriated him about the GAA?

"Nothing," was his answer to the first question – and a GAA pundit who shall remain nameless was his answer to the second.

People sometimes accuse this column of being

controversial. It's not really true. Sitting beside Frank McGuigan, I felt like Kofi Annan. Even Brolly had to raise his game to compete with the six-gunner from Ardboe.

There are very few people who don't make some concessions when it comes to presenting their public image. Frank is one.

When asked if he would be going to Clones to watch Tyrone and his two sons, his unapologetic response was: "No."

And the reason? "I don't go to games where no team gets 'bate'," he said, before outlining his antipathy to the back door.

Not many GAA men who are nostalgic for the good old days of knock-out football are also willing advocates of the GPA. Frank is not easy to pigeonhole.

The highlight of the night came towards the end when a slightly inebriated member of the audience asked the panel (myself included) if we would be able to compete in the modern game.

Jarlath Burns admitted that he couldn't even call

himself a 'catch and kick' footballer.

After being made captain of the Armagh team, Jarlath said that Brian McAlinden once told him that the farthest up the pitch he ever wanted to see him was when he went to the middle of the field for the toss.

Recalling his performance in a kick-fada competition that was held by his club, Jarlath confessed that he nearly ended up in a

different parish and came close to making his way home via Monaghan.

Frank was less conciliatory. He answered the question with a question.

"Would you make it in the modern game?" he asked his interrogator.

Before the reply could come, Frank continued: "You don't need to answer that, because I managed you – and I know the

answer."

The poser of the question took the rebuke in good heart, and raising his pint glass in the air, he said: "I'm the same as you, Frank. I'm too fond of this stuff."

Frank responded with a kind and generous smile. Then, he offered his reply.

"Of course, I'd make it today," he said.

"I'd make it today because our Brian and Tommy would get the ball into me and I'd swing her over the bar."

And the crowd, as they say, went wild. In Tyrone at least, The King lives.

[Ping Pong Santa]

Right Paddy, so this clearly bitter man who won't even go to Clones to watch his own sons never mind his county is to be lauded as a King?

[Zulu]

I want a win.

Well if winning at any cost is your attitude, we'll all better off if you never take up coaching. Sport, any sport, can never be just about winning and when teams go outside the rules to win they need to be punished severly, if you don't agree with that then you don't care about football and all you care about is the bragging rights winning at football brings to you, which is kinda sad when you think about it.