“I couldn’t plámás the referees.”
Paul Galvin with a contender for understatement of the week.
The Kerry legend joined Stephen Ferris, Colm Parkinson and Dion Fanning on Wednesday’s SportsJOE Live, where the subject of referees came up.
While Ferris talked up the talents of Munster forwards Alan Quinlan and Paul O’Connell to win over referees with sweet talk, Galvin revealed that the great Kerry team of the noughties struggled terribly with officials.
Their problem? Orneriness.
The Kingdom were packed full of wonderful footballers who just happened to be bad-tempered cranks.
“A lot of our guys would have been cranky,” said Galvin. “Gooch would have been cranky and Declan [O’Sullivan] would have been cranky, I would have been cranky and Tomas [Ó Sé] would have been cranky. We weren’t really good at it.”
Galvin’s own travails with referees are well documented – his three-month ban for slapping the notebook out of Paddy Russell’s hand in 2008 being the most infamous moment.
“I just wouldn’t talk to them and if I did it was a bark and a bite and I was a bit cross,” said Galvin, who revealed that Kerry relied upon the peace-making abilities of three players, with one smooth-talking estate agent leading the charm offensive.
Step forward Darragh Ó Sé.
“Darragh was our man for that stuff. Darragh Ó Sé was very good at it. He would have an arm around the shoulder and ‘I know’ and ‘I’m sorry’.
“I wouldn’t know the names and he would have the names off and would genuinely know them. Darragh would be very sociable and personable, where as I wouldn’t have been really,” said Galvin, who credited Darragh’s youngest brother Marc with the gift of the gab also.
“You needed Darragh, you needed Marc,” he added. “It was a very cranky team. Donaghy was a good one.”
While Kieran Donaghy may look like a hothead, a documentary released following the 2015 All-Ireland final showed the big full-forward to be quite calm when speaking to referee David Coldrick following an altercation with Philly McMahon.
