Joe Brolly getting people hot and bothered is a sure sign that the Championship is back and of all the tributes paid to the retiring Dermot Earley in recent days, Kieran McGeeney’s stands out above the rest.
Some say it’s the grand stretch in the evenings, some say it’s the smell of freshly cut grass, others say it’s when inter-county players decide to ask one for one blade lower on the razor when getting their haircut, but surely the definitive sign that the Championship has arrived is when Joe Brolly has managed to get on the nerves of an individual, a group of players or, in the majority of cases, an entire county.
The Gaelic Football Championship isn’t yet a week old – no offence Leitrim and New York – and already GAA folk are considering burning effigies of the kiss-blowing former Derry footballer turned analyst and this time it’s far more local than some of the battles Brolly has fought in the past.
Armagh boss Paul Grimley has taken issue with Brolly’s comments about Armagh at the weekend and in particular with what he deemed to be a personal attack on Grimley and his family, as Brolly name-checked Grimley’s brothers Mark and John while attacking the manager of the Orchard County on the box at the weekend.
Speaking to The Irish News, Grimley laid into Brolly for some of the things he said (see the quotes courtesy of the Hogan Stand website here) and is now reported to be giving ‘serious consideration’ to joining Mickey Harte and Tyrone and boycotting the national broadcaster as a result.
You’d think that Grimley’s fiery response might have led Brolly to soften his stance somewhat but that’s not Joe’s style. On Twitter today, he stood firm after former Armagh star and prominent GAA figure Jarlath Burns criticised his ‘totally unacceptable’ comments, while he also twisted the potential national broadcaster boycott to suggest a possible rift with the BBC’s Mark Sidebottom rather than with RTE and with Brolly himself.
Right or wrong, you can’t argue that Brolly is box office and when he’s getting people’s goat nationwide, you know that the Championship is back.
Diamond Geezer: McGeeney’s fitting tribute to Dermot Earley
The GAA will be a poorer place now that Dermot Earley has finally decided to hang up his boots after one battle too many with a litany of injuries in recent years. It would be nigh on impossible to come across a player or a character in the GAA who is held in higher regard than the Kildare midfielder and amongst the many worthy tributes paid to him in the last few days, the one by Lilywhites boss Kieran McGeeney perhaps stood out above the rest.
Speaking on Newstalk’s Off the Ball last night, McGeeney said of Earley: “I came across a thing in a book the other today and I sent it to one of the other players in the Kildare team. I think it sums Dermot up more than anything. It’s about class:
“Good champions are the ones you remember long after they have left the athletic arena and have moved on have class. When you meet them or watch them in public they give you that feel-good factor.
“Even when asked for the umpteenth time “Can you sign this for me?” they are always obliging and giving of their time. They radiate generosity. If you look back at sporting history you will find that the whingers and whiners are forgotten, the characters remembered briefly.
“But what will stick in your mind are the champions who showed class, coolness under pressure, graciousness in their success and diplomacy and courteousness in their behaviour. Unfortunately class is a rare quality in the world today.”
McGeeney added: “I believe that is what Dermot had. I thought he showed that more than most the day he buried his father when he lined out for Kildare. I suppose if you are looking for anything, a word that separated him from everybody else it was that word – class.”
We couldn’t have put it better ourselves. A legend of the game who will be sorely missed.
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