Sport

John McEntee column: Ciaran Whelan and Joe Brolly dropped the ball in All-Ireland final half-time fiasco

Joe Brolly
Joe Brolly Joe Brolly

What a spectacular All-Ireland football final. The general pace of play was breathtaking – never mind the blistering off-the-ball runs by Dublin’s Jack McCaffrey, whose performance is certain to net him another Footballer of the Year award.

The high fielding was a joy to behold and reminiscent of a bygone era when high fetching was a integral part of the game.

In the aftermath there were the usual talking points such as tactics, kickout strategies, the penalty that should or should not have been, and, of course, the analysis.

Final tickets are the preserve of the lucky few, the well connected and the corporations.

In previous years, I was fortunate to fall into one of the first two categories but this year the front living room became my Hogan Stand, Section 531.

As the teams paraded behind the Artane Boys Band the TV volume was raised to maximum level, the larder was raided for last minute drinks and snacks and the front gates were locked.

Cue Amhrán na bhFiann and the time for talking was over. The occasion was so gripping I felt I was living through a historic moment. It was almost as good as being in Croke Park... almost.

The bit I got to see which those in the stands did not was the RTÉ punditry.

All the pre-match build-up was typically brilliant, the analysis was spot-on and the match-up speculations well thought through

As it turned out, the predictions, while logical, were off the mark.

The power panellists lack is the power of foresight; they were not to know Dublin would lose a man so early with such a profound impact on the game, therefore it would be wrong to criticise them on that basis.

My criticism is directed towards the half-time fiasco. The entire analysis was consumed by squabbling over whether Jonny Cooper deserved a second yellow card or not.

To witness grown men transform into babbling babies as they talked over each other and spurted out flawed observations can only be described as daft. Yet it was compelling viewing.

Could it be that Pat Spillane was the only panellist who applied himself professionally?

Or were Joe Brolly and Ciaran Whelan whipping up a storm for ratings’ sake?

The loser in this saga was genuine analysis and an airing of the panellists’ views on how the second half would unfold; something Whelan attempted to recover in the dying seconds of the interval.

What was unclear about Cooper’s second yellow card?

When they repeatedly looked at replays of Cooper being beaten to the ball and, instead of reacting with his feet to David Clifford’s change of direction, wrapping both arms around Clifford’s right forearm before diving forward, hauling Clifford to the floor, could they not see that Cooper’s actions were: 1) deliberate; 2) against the rules of the game; 3) worthy of punishment?

Perhaps David Gough should have issued a black card rather than a second yellow but the outcome would have been the same.

Jonny Cooper has gotten away with living on the edge for too long. He is a tough defender, one of the best corner-backs of the past 20 years, who merges the dark arts of defending with a mastery of buying soft frees from referees, usually the speciality of cunning forwards. This time he gambled and he lost.

This year, RTÉ have introduced a number of punditry cameos from the likes of Stephen Rochford, Michael Murphy and Malachy O’Rourke, all of whom have done an excellent job, which they could undoubtedly do on a regular basis.

They have regular contributors in the form of Colm O’Rourke and Tomás Ó Sé, whose talking is backed up by years of playing football at the top level and who are very comfortable in front of any camera.

They have Kevin McStay, who is very hard-working and rarely wrong and, of course, they have the great Pat Spillane and Colm ‘Gooch’ Cooper.

When it comes to talking about football it would be remiss of any media organisation not to include several former players from the Kingdom, the aristocrats of our game.

A good friend used to say there is nothing a Kerry man doesn’t know about football – but getting them to tell you how to play is an impossible task.

And then there is Brolly. Joe is different gravy to the rest. His training as a barrister serves him well in the RTÉ studio as he is utterly brilliant at making a point while captivating the audience’s interest.

Perhaps, not unlike Jonny Cooper, Brolly’s TV punditry can be on the edge. There have been occasions such as his infamous character assassination of Sean Cavanagh before the implementation of the black card, or his calling into question of the greatness of ‘Gooch’, which many feel were too close to the bone for a conservative GAA audience.

Of course Joe will tell you he is most often right; and he is. But not this time. This display was not befitting of the occasion. Cooper will have a replay to seek redemption from the Dublin faithful; so too should Brolly.