Cold as ice.
RTE and SKY both broadcast last Sunday’s All-Ireland semi-final between Kerry and Tyrone, and because their studios in Croker are side-by-side it’s natural that some of the pundits will meet meet up and chat beforehand.
As former players and opponents one would imagine that the lads would all get along fairly well. However (!), Darragh Ó Sé has revealed a fairly frosty incident from last weekend between two well-known faces.
Joe Brolly was on duty for RTE and Peter Canavan for Sky when the two men chanced upon each other in the corner of the Davin and Hogan stands.
We never thought both men were exactly BFFs but as Darragh tells it in today’s Irish Times he was left brushing some ice off his shoulders after the the two Ulster men caught sight of each other.
“I was chatting away to Peter Canavan and Jim McGuinness on Sunday when Joe Brolly landed in.
“What about ya?” he said to Canavan, the way Ulster people say hello. Canavan gave him a very short answer (second word, “off”) and walked away. I always thought the two boys got on well enough so didn’t know what to think.”
“I was surprised at two things – one, that anyone would take Brolly enough to heart to get that annoyed at him in the first place. And two, that as war was breaking out in Ulster, a Kerryman like me was in the middle like Switzerland.”
If you’re wondering why Canavan would not be best pleased to see Brolly then it may have something to do with an Ulster final from the Nineties.
In his Sunday Independent column on Sunday, Brolly, in the wake of the Tiernan McCann fiasco, accused Canavan of having feigned injury in the 1995 provincial final against Derry.
“In 1995 in Clones, Peter – who was perhaps one of the original experts in feigning – got Derry’s Fergal McCusker sent off a few minutes into the second half.”
“Fergal hand-passed a ball over his head, Peter rushed into Fergal’s arms, made contact and went prostrate on the ground.”
“As the medics rushed in, the TV cameras showed Peter winking. McCusker was enraged and protested his innocence, but to no avail. Fergal is a mate of mine and to this day he is enraged when he is reminded of it.”
Brolly also accused Canavan of other incidents of cynical play, which he revealed in response to a piece by the two time All-Ireland winner earlier last week.
Brolly commented on the media hysteria after the McCann incident earlier this month.
“Tyrone will have the utmost respect for Kerry. They always have, but they will relish going in as underdogs and they will not be carrying any fear going down to Croke Park.
“In the lead-up, they have had to cope with an unprecedented level of criticism, some of this frenzied from sources that should know better. Clearly, there is selective amnesia among some commentators when it comes to their principles.”
Poor Darragh, being stuck in the middle. We hope Jim McGuinness had some comforting words for him.
