Thank you RTÉ for getting this on Facebook.
Back in April, it seemed like Dublin – for the first time in years – could be beaten.
Kerry won the national league in a thriller of a decider ending Dublin’s long, long, long winning streak and The Sunday Game that night was gold.
RTE rolled out the big guns and the chat about Colm Cooper is still worth checking out, whatever about the match analysis.
Joe Brolly, Tomas Ó Sé and Ciaran Whelan were on the couch and a spirited debate of the Gooch’s legacy transpired.
Brolly, as is his wont, set himself up as the contrarian (to the point where Whelan told him to shut up) and Ó Sé accused Brolly of changing his opinions depending on which way the wind blows.
It made for tremendous Facebook television.
“It was like the death of Lady Diana, I thought he had died with all the eulogising that was going on,” said Brolly of this week’s reaction to Cooper’s intercounty retirement.
“He was a delightful Gaelic football… a wizard,” he added. “[But] he doesn’t have that warrior personality, like Peter Canavan or Colm O’Rourke.”
This was too much for Cooper’s former team-mate Ó Sé.
“He is the best forward I have seen play the game,” said the former wing-back. “Normally I wouldn’t say it. Today in that article you had Canavan up on a pedestal and two years ago you cut the legs from under him.
“I say you open the door every morning and see which way the wind is blowing. If you go far enough east you’ll end up west,” added Ó Sé.
When all is said and done, it was an old Kerry legend who won the league with best two minutes of year https://t.co/69kPDOdR4j
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) April 10, 2017
When Whelan tried to have his speak, Brolly made to interrupt him – eliciting an abrupt response from the former Dublin midfielder.
“Shut up for a minute,” said Whelan. “In 2002 he was a genius. he was light frame, joy to watch.”
You know Brolly has crossed a line when even Michael Lyster, the most light touch of presenters, is having a cut off you, comparing the contrarian to Muppet Show cranks, Statler and Waldorf.
Interestingly, while Brolly was arguing that Gooch never did it against Tyrone, Ó Sé stayed schtum on Cooper’s stellar 2005 final performance, when he very nearly dragged his team to victory despite the attentions of Ryan McMenamin.
If Brolly is looking for votes in an upcoming presidential election, he may not want to bank on filling ballot boxes in the Kingdom.
