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7th December 2018
05:50pm GMT
Micko, the RTÉ documentary chronicling the life and career of legendary Kerry manager Mick O'Dwyer, earned rave reviews when it aired earlier this year as it depicted the man as a football romantic who's been hopelessly addicted to the game for 70 years.
The documentary portrayed his early years, his glory days with the Kerry senior football team as well as his time with Laois.
However, GAA Hour host Colm Parkinson, who played under O'Dwyer during his spell with The O'Moore County, took exception with the picture being painted of the Laois players. Offering an impassioned defence, he said on the GAA Hour:
"Micko is hurt by the way his management tenure ended with us and the picture that's been painted of Laois is not the reality. "That period in Laois' football history is almost the greatest ever and for people to look at that period - one we're really proud of - and to think 'aww, they were only whippersnappers and they weren't committed.' That's bullshit - we were absolutely committed to Mick O'Dwyer."
Continuing his staunch rebuttal of the perception of Laois players, Wooly pointed out how they adhered to his famously draining training sessions, doing a punishing amount of laps around the field.
"He'd send you for seven [laps], now they weren't full laps so you'd do a circle of the lap. You'd come back and he'd tell you a story, build your confidence up and everyone would be hanging on his word. "Then he might tell you do four, then another eight, and another three. By the time it ended you'd be up around 35-40 laps. For the first two years, we did absolutely everything, won a Leinster title in his first year."However, at the end of Micko's second year, things turned rather sour when the coach suddenly sprung a training session during the off-season.
"Micko decides to fix a training session for Saturday night at 7 o'clock. So, only 12, 14 maybe 16 people showed up because it was last-minute and the others had plans. "Micko lost the head, said Laois players weren't committed and walked out on Laois. We trained like dogs for two years under him and didn't come to one training session, when the chairman of the county board told me he was sore over something financial. So he used the Laois players to fight his battle with the county board. The Laois players were being painted as these up-starts who weren't committed when that wasn't the reality."
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