O’Tooles know how to go for the hard sell.
The north Dublin club are on the brink of success, they can almost bloody taste it on their tongues and they want one last push to get them over the line.
That push, it seems, is going to be helped by a transfer or a few.
The beaten Division One league finalists lost in the senior hurling championship semi-final this year and are now actively looking to recruit some fresh faces.
‘We are always looking to improve our performance and are actively looking for senior hurlers especially players relocating to the North side of Dublin,’ the O’Tooles website reads.
Then they went for it with a breakdown of their performance and what their ‘commitment’ would be back to their players.
It isn’t something that pleases Colm Parkinson too much on The GAA Hour.
The former Laois player has experience with Dublin clubs having played with Parnells and when he called for residency rules in club GAA, he stood over his own playing career.
“I transferred to Parnells in 2011 and, despite what some people think, the commute was the main reason for the switch,” Parkinson wrote.
“I was 31 and tired of the rat race. Rushing from work in Grand Canal dock and across the city down to Portlaoise in rush hour traffic was a nightmare, especially with my slight road rage issues. It took almost two hours most nights, and that’s not two relaxing hours on a motorway listening to a podcast. The first hour is stuck in traffic, skipping into bus lanes, moving lanes and generally getting stressed out.
“I opted out of playing with Laois for the two years I played with Parnells too. Again, contrary to what people think, I approached Parnells about the transfer.”
Now though, you have O’Tooles putting out feelers and advertising themselves for potential new players.
“I’ve never, ever seen anything like that on a club website before,” Parkinson said on SportsJOE’s GAA Hour amid a strong rant.
“You would imagine that the GAA and the Dublin county board should be coming down on that like a tonne of bricks.
“The advertising is wrong. It is not how you should be improving your club. You should not be thinking, ‘yes, we’re nearly there. This will get us over the line. Let’s advertise for new players’.
“How can clubs outside of Dublin compete with that? It’s wrong, it’s wrong, it’s wrong.”
Seems like he thinks it’s wrong.
Listen to the explosive take on it below (from 06:43).
