How else can one rationally explain this nonsensical outburst from PC PC about the fallout from the Parnell Park bust-up? Hung out to dry, my hole. In case you didn’t see the mass brawl involving every one of your players and most of those from Meath, have a look at it again, Constable. A good number of your lads (and the other lot) were caught on video throwing punches. That’s eight weeks minimum territory and the GAA are bang on the money to be dishing out the kind of sanctions mentioned. If anything, what’s being mooted is on the lenient side. So, like a good man Pillar – stop digging, take your punishment like a man and read the bloody rule book. And lay off the weed!
As usual spot on. The Dublin indiscipline did not happen overnight. In the case of Whelan he should have got a straight red for a foul on Crawford of Meath a few years ago. He should have got a straight red for the foul on McGarrity in the semi final of 2006. When the refs fail to do their job and the big boys get away with it then its no surprise that we have the battles of Omagh and Parnell Park. This is not a new phenomenen by the way. I will never tire of highlighting the fact that John Finn got his jaw fractured in front of 65,000 people and the culprit from Dublin was not ever called to account. There are too many appeals groups and when you factor in the clumsy claw of the legal eagles the great game that is gaelic will be poisened. Soccer players and rugby players take their medicine with out whinging and running to every appeals and disciplinary board around. At the start of each championship each county should be asked to sign up to a charter in regards discipline, one of the items on it should be to accept the governing bodys rules without question. We also tend to to forget that there are a large number of incompetent referees let loose each year that cause mayhem. Paddy Russell is one of the best by a mile however he is in the minority.
Quote of the day from Pillar:
“Controlled aggression is probably what it is all about and I would say we’ve a bit to do working on that going forward.”
You’d have to wonder how the GAA run their affairs when they can’t or won’t take a consistent approach to discipline. The problem, I suppose, is that there are so many layers, with the national lads saying one thing and the county boards something else. There should be one body, no appeals or any shite like that – it’s not as if anyone is getting a lethal injection or anything – and they could do it like the penalty points: take your medicine without requesting a hearing and it’s X (which should be matches, not time, given the way the GAA’s calender works) but insist on pleading your case and it’s 2X if you don’t succeed. Getting them all to sign up to a code is a great idea and it’s the way they should go but, like so many other good ideas, I can’t see it happening anytime soon.
Pillar’s quote must be short odds for Bullshit Quote of the Year!
He did say they had work to do on the “controlled aggression”, didn’t he?
Did he mean they need to work on the aggression (too much of it) or the control (not enough of it)?
Or can he think at that level at all?
Take your pick! I’d say it’s the latter somehow.