“I’ve stopped asking any of the lads.”
County panels are air tight when it comes to what they reveal to those outside of their bubble.
They tell the media the usual rubbish about ‘trusting the process,’ or ‘taking it one game at a time,’ but really they’re never going to give anything away.
Luckily for the GAA Hour, former Donegal star Eamon McGee is a pundit on the show and throw in the fact that his brother, Neil, is still on the county panel, then surely he will have lots of inside information, right?
Wrong. Speaking on the latest episode of the GAA Hour, Eamon reveals how the usual conversation between the siblings plays out, whenever he asks about Donegal.
“Neil doesn’t say much, it’s like North Korea, like most county teams. It’s like North Korea up here trying to get information and you know, ‘Where you at training tonight?’ ‘Don’t know.’
“’When are youns out again?” ‘Don’t know.’
“Actually, one of the lads literally told me, he just said: ‘Why are you even bothering asking me? I’m going to tell you a rake of lies anyway so don’t bother asking me.’
“I’ve stopped asking any of the lads, I don’t even bother asking Neil about football anymore. I’m not going to get any of the information, but it’s been quiet enough, there’s been a good buzz after the Division One, getting over Armagh, winning that game at O’Donnell Park, and it’s been a quiet enough build up.”
Donegal play Armagh in their championship opener, and there’s added tension because the last game both teams played was in the league against one another.
However, despite Donegal winning, the real talking point was the scuffle afterwards that saw Armagh’s Ciaran Mackin, Aidan Nugent and Stefan Campbell have been sanctioned, along with Odhran McFadden-Ferry and Neil McGee.
Rian O’Neill was also handed a suspension but this has since been overturned and the Crossmaglen star has been given the all-clear to play.
“There has been a general… amongst us as fans, I’m not sure about the group, but disappointment in the disciplinary process and the way which Rian O’Neill was cleared.
“I’m sure you lads (Darran O’Sullivan and Cian Mackey), you are two forwards and yous would love Rian O’Neill to play, he’s a fabulous footballer and whatnot, but it just made a mockery of the whole disciplinary process that he was able to get off when it was clear from the video that he probably did deserve a bit of a suspension, so there’s a bit of annoyance about that up here but the three lads who are still suspended for Armagh are massive losses to them.
“Odhran-McFadden Ferry is a massive loss because he’s one of the players who goes under the radar, does a lot donkey work, picks up probably their danger men, if Rian O’Neill was playing out the field, Odhran would have picked him up, or more than likely picked him up so, so I genuinely mean this, there’s not a lot of confidence.”
Listen to the full discussion on the GAA Hour now.
