It’s hard to keep up with Joe Brolly’s fads but this is definitely a new one.
The Sunday Game analyst wouldn’t be his normal self if he wasn’t leading some form of a campaign on football but now he just sounds like he’s leading the entire football community into war.
At least that’s what we think he wants anyway.
It started to build in him last week during the Kerry and Cork match. He accused the Rebels of being far too nice. He wanted to see James O’Donoghue sacked. He wanted more bite and fight from the Cork men.
He marvelled about the days when Donegal took a stand in Ulster and said no more. When they said to Tyrone (allegedly), “You are not going to stand on our throats anymore.”
Then the Derry man – who said in March that he wouldn’t be attending his native county’s championship games because of how they played – wanted to see more of the same from the Oak Leafers after their intense battle with Donegal.
Ahead of Derry’s victory over Wexford, Brolly was being interviewed in the Gaelic Life, and he said:
“If you want to beat Kilkenny, you must bring war. Likewise Kerry. Against Donegal the last day, we finally brought war. for the first time in nearly twenty years, we were at battle speed. Nice boys win nothing.”
Then he wrote this in his weekly column.
His column for the Sunday Independent was of similar variety. War variety.
Yes, the same guy who lobbied against cynical play, against sledging and even something as trivial and innocent as defensive tactics. He now wants war, by any means.
And he doesn’t want shooting? (Okay, we’re being pedantic)
But he brought his siege mentality – his literal siege mentality – to the TV screens on The Sunday Game.
At first, Westmeath feeling shocked that they were still in the Leinster final by half time was compared to… well, a US marine, of course. Who else?
And then, his final warning for Dublin was typically Churchillian. Or Brollyian.
