He was onto something. For a brief moment, he was onto something.
Then, suddenly, everything changed. Pat Spillane managed to turn a Westmeath-fuelled championship restructure debate into a sweeping dismissal of two very separate economic policies that were lumped in as one.
We can talk all we want about A and B championships, about a league format or, with more relevance, how poor Westmeath were but we may never get to the bottom of why there were 31 points separating them from Dublin at the end of it all. The only thing we can be sure of is that, to Pat Spillane, communism and socialism are failures.
The Kerry analyst performed what seemed like a U-turn from nowhere during RTÉ’s live analysis of the Leinster semi-final – but he took the scenic route too.
He might not have been there to defend himself against Joe Brolly’s rebuke on Sunday evening but he was certainly there with Colm O’Rourke and Michael Lyster during the game and nobody took exception to, firstly, his final thoughts not matching his arguments and, secondly, his weird and irrelevant political detour.
“This year’s championship, to be very honest, has been very enjoyable,” Spillane started by playing down Colm O’Rourke’s hysteria that the weaker counties can’t compete.
“We tend to have knee-jerk reactions. The minute there’s a one-sided game, a landslide victory, suddenly we have to reform everything and the system is wrong.
“Look, this Dublin team are an exceptional team. They have an outstanding team and you can talk about systems all you want… in America they have the draft system which favours the weaker teams and yet the strong teams still always win.
“The cream will always come to the top, irrespective of what sort of format.”
However, within minutes of that debate, Spillane reasoned in agreement with O’Rourke:
“Yes, there should be – like in county championships – an intermediate and a junior.”
Along the way though, he added colour.
https://twitter.com/ConanDoherty/status/879681414576394240
It’s almost like that scene in Father Ted when they’re trying to figure out a solution to get Dougal off the milk float and Father Clarke says, “speaking of masses, there was a time there at the Moscow Olympics…”
Well, speaking of championship restructures, there was a time there when socialism and communism…
“Sport is a mirror image of society,” Spillane said.
“The strong get stronger and the weak get weaker, sadly. In theory, communism and socialism were a great idea – everyone being equal – but they’re failures.
“The idea that we can revamp something, have a different format and then every team will be competitive is absolute poppycock.”
As crazy as it was, he was touching on something. Until he turned around and suggested revamping the thing anyway.
What will the capitalists think of that?
