BOXING and battles dominated Colm O’Rourke’s thoughts in the RTE studios yesterday afternoon as he got into the fighting spirit during Tyrone’s Ulster final win over Donegal.
With Joe Brolly absent, the familiar tag-team of O’Rourke and Pat Spillane were left to dissect the action at St Tiernach’s Park, both on and off the pitch.
“I saw Tyrone and Donegal supporters drinking before the match,” said O’Rourke.
“Often this has descended even to the odd bout of fisticuffs on the terrace…anyone that says it’s friendly between Donegal and Tyrone is misplaced.
“We were at Ballybofey last year, there was a nasty element to that game.”
Spillane was leaning towards a Red Hand win, comparing Mickey Harte’s side to All-Ireland champions Dublin.
“I like the style of football they play, I think they have the balance right between defence and attack.
“The pace at which they counter-attack is absolutely amazing. They are very much Dublin like with the pace they break at.”
Hard hits and lightning fast counters may have been anticipated, but the first half produced little quality of note and instead the controversial black cards for Red Hand duo Mattie Donnelly and Cathal McShane proved the main talking points at the halfway stage.
@TyroneGAALive pic.twitter.com/JN6t1k5tKt
— Joe McMahon (@Bigjoemc) July 17, 2016
On BBC Mark Sidebottom asked a simple question – “is the black card helping or hindering the game?”
“Hindering,” said Oisin McConville, “hindering,” said Philip Jordan, but Martin McHugh ensured that there was a split decision.
“I think it’s helping it if used with common sense,” said the Donegal man.
Donnelly’s dismissal was also splitting opinion in RTE with Spillane outlining why it was deserved while O’Rourke shouted “absolutely not” over him.
The Meathman’s mood hadn’t been helped by the first 35 minutes in Clones, and he went a century back into the past to sum it up.
“It’s a bit like the Battle of the Somme a 100 years on,” he said.
“The troops move up the field in a line and then they move back except they have no guns today.”
Spillane, meanwhile, showed that he is a fair man by showing that his he doesn’t discriminate when it comes to criticism.
“Yes we were critical last week of Connacht, they say ‘ah you always critical of Connacht because the west are the minnows, why not pick on Ulster?’
“We’ll pick on Ulster today because (it’s) perfect conditions for football.
“Right we can say it’s intriguing, enthralling and intense and tactical but this is modern day Gaelic football.
“People will throw out red herrings and say there was bad games in the past. Yes there was but we’re just talking about what we’ve seen.”
The quality may not have increased that much in the second half, but there was excitement at least as super scores from Sean Cavanagh, Peter Harte and Kieran McGeary ensured a first Anglo Celt Cup for Tyrone since 2010.
“This was both teams playing with fear and a football match broke out in the last 10 minutes,” was Spillane’s view on Tyrone’s 0-13 to 0-11 win.
Putting his county allegiance aside for a minute, Jordan felt that a replay would have been just reward for two teams that went blow for blow.
“I think a draw probably would have been a fair result,” said the Moy man.
“Neither team probably deserved to lose. Donegal were dominant in the first half, Tyrone in the second half really grinded it down when they were 0-8 0-4 down.
“It was a credit to both teams, some of the scores in the last five or six minutes were exceptional.”
So the fisticuffs may have been missing, but two teams slugged it out in an ugly affair. Tyrone got the decision on points and now the two contestants must prepare for their forthcoming bouts.
