“If you criticise somebody and they turn things around – and go from being folders or quitters to winners – your admiration is bigger.”
Ger Loughnane faced the music but at least he did it on home turf.
The GAA Hour paid a visit to Ennis ahead of the All-Ireland Hurling semi-final between Clare and Galway. The Woodstock Hotel played host to the show as Colm Parkinson looked ahead to the much-anticipated clash, and dragged Loughnane over the coals.
The former Clare and Galway hurling boss was gracious enough to take the hot-seat [from 4:00 below] and answer up to some of the biggest calls he has made as a pundit in recent years. It was frank, honest and, as it so often proves with Loughnane, a right good laugh.
Harking back to Loughnane’s boldest claims, in his Irish Daily Star columns, Parkinson asked the former Banner boss to face the music. Here was his response to those four big calls:
1. ‘They have a manager that reminds me of Dermot Morgan’s character Fr. Trendy from RTE in the 1980s’ – (2016)
LOUGHNANE: That was probably 2016, when Galway were winning by three points and over-running Kilkenny and then, in the second half, they totally collapsed – 1-16 to 0-9 points – and lost. At the end it was an absolutely total surrender from Galway.
The manager, of course, was Micheal Donoghue and he was in his first year there… It seemed a bit severe at the time but, when you look at it, you have to say what you are seeing there and then.
If you go on YouTube, look at the last point Kilkenny scored there. The Galway fellas actually stood off and let the score be taken… this was one of the worst surrenders and collapses I’d ever seen and I thought if they did nothing about it, that Galway team [were finished].
2. ‘Dublin are the greatest bunch of big-day chokers that any county has ever produced’ – (2017)
LOUGHNANE: I was wrong there!
Because Dublin have proved me wrong and they are one of the greatest up-and-coming teams in the GAA. What Pat Gilroy has done… they are. They’ve got an exceptional guy in Pat and over the next few years, we will all see how exceptional he is.
3. ‘Offaly are the only team in the modern era where you see the players with fat legs, bellies and arses’
LOUGHNANE: Well, that was the funniest one of all time!
The reason was, you’d all the former Offaly players and managers saying, ‘You know, Loughnane never got over 1998’ or something like that. It was nothing to do with 98, or anything like that.
It was just, LOOK AT OFFALY AND YOU’D SEE THE WAY THEY WERE!!
A few weeks later, they played Kilkenny below in Nowlan Park. The same year [as that column] and, oh, they were being hockeyed. The camera went into where there was a fella warming up. Jesus, you should have seen him! He had a fu… he was MASSIVE! Legs, arse, belly. Well, I burst out laughing when I seen him.
There he was – the epitome of what I said! That was definitely one time I was right.
4. ‘That soft centre – for so long their undoing – once again raised its unwelcome head… Michael Ryan has done everything he can to stop softness and complacency taking hold, but how can you really do that with the players he has? … All the talk of Tipperary being great. This isn’t even a good Tipperary team’ – (2017)
LOUGHNANE:Â Do you remember, before the league final last year, I remember Henry Shefflin was on League Sunday and he said – and I gave him a right slagging over this after – that Tipperary now had two teams. They had a panel in hurling like Dublin had in football.
But you could see… sure they had no backs. Except for Paudie Maher they had nothing else… They were so weak defensively that I couldn’t see them becoming a force.
There was also that softness in that Tipperary team… Galway absolutely devoured them in that final.
5. ‘Kilkenny are functional beyond belief and totally dependant on one forward’ – (2016)
LOUGHNANE: That was 2016 and when they were going so well. When they were going for the three-in-a-row.
My whole point there was – that Kilkenny team should not possibly be allowed win three in a row.
I had seen Cork win a three in a row, in 1976, ’77 and ’78, that were a brilliant team and who had 15 great hurlers. I had seen the great Kilkenny team of Henry Shefflin [& Co.] from 2004 to 2012. They won the four-in-a-row.
That [2014-2016] Kilkenny team could not be considered – not even in the same breath – as those great teams I had seen. Now, they didn’t win the three-in-a-row but they got to the final…
When you say it at the time, people may go, ‘That so n’ so Loughnane!’, but I can only say what I see, and I’m not always right.
Loughnane may not always get it right but he always calls it as he sees it.
Some man for one man.
