Sport

Brendan Crossan: Ditching the colourful Joe Brolly was the wrong move by RTÉ

Joe Brolly (left), pictured with former RTE colleagues Pat Spillane, Colm O'Rourke and Michael Lester
Joe Brolly (left), pictured with former RTE colleagues Pat Spillane, Colm O'Rourke and Michael Lester Joe Brolly (left), pictured with former RTE colleagues Pat Spillane, Colm O'Rourke and Michael Lester

TWO years ago, I travelled to St Patrick’s School in Navan to interview former Meath footballer Colm O’Rourke.

Joe Brolly kindly helped set up the interview. I spent over an hour in the principal’s office - O’Rourke’s office - talking all things GAA.

O’Rourke and Brolly got to know each other really well through working on The Sunday Game together for the best part of two decades.

It was clear O’Rourke liked Brolly. Warts and all. O’Rourke almost had a fatherly affection for the eccentric Derryman.

With a glint in his eye, O’Rourke said: “I like him as a person. You know, I said to Joe that I liked him far better when he had two kidneys!”

O’Rourke added: “He is RTE’s biggest asset – he’s a liability at times as well, but he does give the show a certain status in GAA society.

“The people who hate him for his opinions all want their photograph taken with him. They all want to chat to him.

“He can be quite insulting but he couldn’t understand why anybody would be insulted by him.

“But what I do like about him is he is willing to do a lot for people and he doesn’t want anything out of it for himself. He’s willing to give of himself.”

Looking out onto an empty playground in St Patrick’s – it was August and school was still off – O’Rourke revealed he would often caution his friend.

“When he’s signing autographs, I keep telling him: ‘Joe, this isn’t real, you know. The Sunday Game will go on long after we’re gone.’

A wily old journalist friend once said: 'Some people just don't want to come off the dance floor.'

Joe certainly loves dancing.

And so it has come to pass. Earlier this week, news seeped out that Brolly’s career on The Sunday Game was over.

RTE made no comment on Brolly’s departure. No official statement. No explanation.

Suffice to say, he was finished.

Judging by the interview he did with journalist Kieran Cunningham recently perhaps Joe saw the writing on the wall at RTE.

He told Cunningham: “I think the dulling down of The Sunday Game is a bad mistake… Whether people agree or disagree with you, the whole point is that you create debate – that’s all you can do on television.”

Brolly went on to say: “What is balance? What exactly is it? In the end, everything will be neutralised…There is no doubt that balance is a paralysing thing, this idea that there has to be a counterpoint…”

Brolly, clearly, had his wings clipped by RTE chiefs, evidenced in such toe-curling, transparent fashion by presenter Joanne Cantwell.

Philosophically speaking, Brolly might be onto something when he questions the frantic pursuit of ‘balance’ in the media rather than seeing Gaelic Games discussion as an enjoyable polemical past-time.

What is the point of balance, indeed?

Of course, nobody is entitled to be rude or nasty, which Brolly was at times with his comments towards managers, players and even GAA presenters.

So there are a lot of GAA people out there who will be delighted he won’t be on their television screens any more.

And yet, even his fiercest critic might grudgingly concede that when he stuck to analysing the game there weren't many better.

In his own inimitable, articulate way he brought colour to Gaelic football analysis.

Always the master of hyperbole, he often brought a sense of fun to living rooms around the country.

While Gaelic football has enjoyed a good summer, there were times over the last five or six years when the game made for tragic viewing. Game after game after game.

At times, the only entertainment on our screens was at half-time when Brolly stopped punters from switching channels to the soccer over on Sky – which was an equally mind-numbing spectacle.

My own impression of Brolly has changed over time. I've learned not to take his media persona too seriously because when you look out your window in 2019, the world is a pretty shattered place.

We hear the rolling thunder of ‘Brexit’ and its dire economic consequences, the food banks, people losing their homes, their dignity, families struggling to make ends meet, the climbing debt, zero-contract hours, the education system is already a busted flush, while the health service crumbles.

There are things to be vexed about in life.

Joe Brolly is not one of them.

For many GAA fans, he was theatre, the Sunday afternoon escapism, the antidote to the forensic analyst who tells us for the umpteenth time the importance of kick-outs and the high press.

Sometimes we take our analysis too seriously. Sometimes you need to catch a view from outside the bubble we inhabit.

Upon hearing the news of RTE dropping Brolly, a friend texted: ‘Joe’s still the best. It’ll be boring now.’

As Colm O’Rourke told his friend a million times: “The Sunday Game will go on long after we’re gone.”

And it will. The Sunday Game will outlive us all. But GAA media discourse will be the lesser for Brolly's removal.

RTE won’t have the texture as it once had in the studio.

Of course, the television station’s chiefs are well within their rights to shake up their panel and go in a different direction.

It’s hard to escape the conclusion that not retaining Brolly on the RTE roster was harsh and unnecessary.

How many forensic football analysts does one TV studio need?

Surely there is room for more light on our screens and a less serious view of the world.

A summer panto villain never did that much harm, did they?

Did it really need to come to this?