Biggest challenge to our game is the possession-based, risk averse mentality of elite coaches Donegal manager Jim McGuinness with Tyrone manager Mickey Harte employed tactics that were risk averse and ultra defensive. During the 30 years I spent working on The Sunday Game , a constant criticism levelled at me was that I was too negative. Yes, they were right, but does that mean I was wrong in being as critical as I was? Absolutely not.
The majority of games that I was watching were crap, and my views were sadly reflective of the dross in front of me. I was simply calling it as I saw it. It’s gas to think now that in those early years the GAA powers-that-be during their contract negotiations with RTÉ demanded my removal from the panel because I was deemed to be too critical.
Thankfully, RTÉ held firm. Isn’t it hilarious that in those days there was huge distrust between RTÉ and the GAA? Now we have an entirely changed tune. They paddle the same canoe with GAAGO.
Let’s be honest, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck it is, in all probability, a duck. If it is a bad match, it is just that – a bad match. I was never going to be a cheerleader for sport like the horse racing pundits are.
My modus operandi has always been to call something as I see it – warts and all. If you want to read fiction, you can buy Hans Christian Andersen. Sadly, from that infamous night on The Sunday Game when I branded parts of the Kerry-Tyrone game as ‘puke football’, footb.