Waterford’s Eoin Kelly is not happy with the abuse GAA players receive on social media and messageboards while the Pillar Caffrey will be having nightmares about Ciaran McDonald until his dying day.
By Declan Whooley
Eoin Kelly takes a swipe at abusive fans as he announces retirement
Waterford’s Eoin Kelly has announced his retirement from inter-county hurling and he used the opportunity to take a swipe at those who resort to social media and message boards to abuse players.
The 30 year-old bows out of the inter-county scene with four Munster medals and two All-Stars to his name and had a turbulent 2012 campaign. Initially omitted from the panel by Michael Ryan, he forced his way back into the fold but was kept on the bench against Cork.
He has wished Ryan, the players and County Board well, but had some choice words for their faceless detractors.
“One thing that annoyed me a lot over the years was the amount of lies and rumours spread about lads on internet message boards and Facebook and all of that. A lot of the Tipperary lads got slaughtered on message boards since the All-Ireland semi-final. That’s not right,” he said in today’s Irish Examiner.
Kelly went on to say that the GAA has to take some form of action to prevent this from escalating even further.
“Surely the GAA could spare a few bob to protect lads from having their good names taken by heroes who haven’t the guts to put their own names to what they’re writing?” the Passage man queried.
After 13 years of service for the Déise, Kelly clearly isn’t going to miss one aspect that comes with the territory of being an inter-county player.
Pillar: We were not psyched out by Mayo
Pillar Caffrey claims that Mayo warming up in front of the Hill in 2006 did not have the psychological effect that has been suggested, but he will have nightmares about Ciaran McDonald’s winning score until his dying day.
Speaking in The Herald, the former manager said that it was the wayward shooting rather than the skirmish beforehand that proved their downfall.
“We were not psyched out in any way. Not one iota,” the Dublin-based Garda is quoted as saying.
Caffrey has claimed, similar to Ciaran Whelan earlier in the week, that it is the one game he has not looked at since and has no intentions of either. In what was clearly a dark day for the boss, he says he he has no regrets about the decision to warm-up alongside Mayo in front of the Hill.
“If we had said going out that we would get the picture taken and jogged down to the Canal End and did our warm up and lost the game by a point, people would have said Dublin were psyched out of it.”
Caffrey described the horrible feeling of seeing Ciaran McDonald’s point curl over the bar in such a dramatic finish to a semi-final. “I’d say it will be one of the last sights I see before I croak,” he morbidly added.
Pillar will be hoping along with all the Dublin supporters, both the genuine fans and the many sunshine supporters that will crawl out of the woodwork, that history will not repeat itself in such a cruel manner.
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