JOE BROLLY HAS hit back at the reaction to his criticism of Kieran McGeeney on The Sunday Game and has labelled the Armagh county board as ‘spineless’ for complaining to RTÉ.
Brolly blamed McGeeney last Sunday for the poor display that saw Armagh exit the Ulster championship at the hands of Cavan.
The comments prompted a heated debate with former Armagh boss Paul Grimley branding Brolly’s remarks as poisonous.
In his weekly column in today’s Gaelic Life newspaper, Brolly responded to the reaction this week.
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‘Because of the picture he paints of himself, Brolly thinks he’ll get away with poisonous remarks’
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Joe Brolly lays the blame firmly at Kieran McGeeney’s door
“The hysterical reaction from a few people to the discussion in the RTE studio on Sunday is a smokescreen. Kieran McGeeney’s managerial performance is a matter of public record.
“As is the serious ill health of the county game and the damage it is wreaking on the clubs. ”Poisonous and personal”, said Paul Grimley, before accusing me of using my kidney donation and charity work as a defence against criticism.
“The man is an irony free zone. There was nothing either poisonous or personal about what I said. Now the Armagh Board has made a complaint to RTE. Spineless isn’t the word.
“I have offered to debate these fundamental issues on live TV with a member of the Armagh Board.
“Let them come on TV and explain why the county players don’t play club football. Let them explain what the relationship is between manager and board.
“The real problem the Armagh board have is that what I said is true and everyone knows it’s true. The massive positive reaction on social media from Armagh folk speaks for itself.”
You can read Joe Brolly’s column in full here in this week’s Gaelic Life
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Tell that to limerick, on the cusp of the double
@Ave it: There’s always an exception or two but the normality is complete non-events and a predictable outcome until the later stages of the championship.
@Rochelle: it wouldn’t be like that if we have tiers and open draw and dispensed with the provincial championship or ran provincial at a different time of year
@Ave it: Limerick beat a division 3 team hardly that much of an upset?
Imagine trying to get a ticket with six teams playing on the same day
@Eugene O’ Sullivan: exactly. Terrible idea. Double header of tier 2 and 3 on the Saturday evening and Tier 1 / minor final as tradition on its own the Sunday.
- Abolish Provincial Championships
- Champions League format with seeded draws
- 8 groups of 4
- Teams that finish first and Second play for Sam
- Third team and fourth team play in Bed and C Championships respectively
- All players still get the opportunity to pull off shocks and play for Sam.
- all players have something to play for
- Plus think of how the fixtures being so structured would also allow the club game to flourish.
Think I’ll run for the County council now too
@Séamus Tierney: Probably one of the best ideas, because one of the main complaints along with lack of coverage is that a ‘B’ championship would take away a players chance for a upset or a big day out in Croke Park against a top team. At least with this they get both that and chance of winning some silverware.
@Séamus Tierney: that’s a good idea and Zi used to be for it, but it wouldn’t work because you can pretty much pick which 16 teams will qualify with 1 or 2 surprises. 2/3 of the marches would be drubbings that will attract no public interest and the 1 decent game really a dead rubber as both teams guaranteed 2 wins from the other matches.
@Séamus Tierney: that’s a good idea and I used to be for it, but it wouldn’t work because you can pretty much pick which 16 teams will qualify with 1 or 2 surprises. 2/3 of the matches would be drubbings/hammerings that will attract no public interest and the 1 decent game really a dead rubber as both teams guaranteed 2 wins from the other matches.
@Séamus Tierney: still the same amount of hammerings in champions league format
All they need to do is reduce the size of the ball to little more than tennis ball size and let them bring sticks onto the pitch to hit the reduced size ball, problem solved.
@Dino: nice idea but I could see this becoming a niche product, played by an elite few counties and generally ignored by everyone else.
@Etherman: As opposed to the big ball game we have ATM played by one ‘elite’ county and where everyone yearns after the competitiveness of the niche product??
The league is a far better competition. Can we not just swap them around and play the championship in the spring?
@Brian Dunne: what???
@Brian Dunne: the league is very competitive, but it’s not the competition teams really want to win. The Kerry manager said all throughout the league that they weren’t interested in winning it. He got his wish in the end.
@Stephen Walsh: yea but if it was the championship they would
Works for the ladies also as TG4 cover all grades. RTE who pay Brolly are part of the problem zero coverage of lower profile games .
Intercounty League starts 1st Jan. Champions league format starting in April. Finished by end of June All Ireland final. Players back to the clubs by mid July. Then county finals played worse case end of Sept. Solved both Hurling and football in 261 characters.
There is no perfect format. A champions league type group system or an NFL type fixture competition would work best in my opinion. Teams can come against opposition of all levels and benefit from each. Eliminated teams can go into a second tier competition. Every team would play at least 4 games at a minimum. Season tickets & game planning could also be organised well in advance.