2021 All Ireland Football-Covid is a cod tyrone style

Sport
6970

https://www.rte.ie/sport/gaa/2021/0921/1248112-gaa-unhappy-with-cowardly-assessment-of-players/

GAA president Larry McCarthy unhappy with ‘cowardly’ criticism of players by critics and supporters

Updated / Tuesday, 21 Sep 2021 13:32

GAA president Larry McCarthy has pointed to the aftermath of this year’s All-Ireland final

By Damian Lawlor

RTÉ GAA reporter

GAA president Larry McCarthy has urged restraint in comments and analysis of the association’s amateur players, describing some commentary by critics as “cowardly”.

In a statement released by the association this morning, McCarthy revisited words voiced during his inauguration speech last February after the aftermath of the All-Ireland football final.

It comes days after Mayo issued an update on events after the loss to Tyrone.

“Words matter, what one says matters, what one puts in the public domain matters,” said McCarthy.

"This was a point I made at Congress in February 2021 in the context of, what Bob Costas calls, a corrosive assault on civility. That corrosive assault has been perpetuated recently by members of the 'critics collective’ and by many people who term themselves supporters in their reaction to the All-Ireland football final.

"The criticism emanating from these people has been overly harsh, unfair and in some cases down-right cowardly. It has gone well beyond fair analysis of team performance.

“Critical evaluation of match performance is fine, and expected, but overly harsh scrutiny of amateur players is unjustifiable. It is inexcusable when it moves beyond the realm of what happens on the field.”

The GAA president also said he was surprised by the level of discord directed at players that some critics claim to support.

“It beggars belief that people who consider themselves supporters of a team would castigate members of that team, the management and the County Committee in a crude and, in some cases, personal fashion,” he said.

"Nobody sets out to play badly, nobody sets out to lose an All-Ireland, but it happens. Supporters, who are members of GAA clubs, who attend club games, and who know the commitment and sacrifice the players make, understand this. Unfortunately, it is a point that seems to have escaped far too many people in the last week.

"Stop unwarranted critiques of GAA members. Stop this corrosive assault on civility. Perspective is needed when commenting on games and sport in general – not least when players are amateurs.

“None of us know the long-lasting impact of this type of harsh criticism on amateur players and we need to be mindful of the positive mental health of others.”

6971

AOS PR team are going to extreme measures.

1 Like
6972

Few lovely words from McGeary on Mickey Harte.

McGeary is keen to highlight the importance of former boss Mickey Harte, who spoke with a number of players at the team’s homecoming.

“He’s been very supportive all year. I remember seeing him on the pitch after we beat Donegal and he was delighted for a lot of the boys. He was like, ‘Yes lads, you have one more step to win the Ulster here.’

“Mickey always had his eye for Sam all the time. He nearly put he glasses on you to see what was in front of you. He was a big man for imagining it was there. I suppose he got the ball rolling for a lot of the players. He always talked about how you don’t have that many years and that, ‘it’ll fly, it’ll fly’.

“A few of us seen him the night of the banquet. He’s nearly the one that planted the seed for a lot of the players that are there.

“He slipped in and out and said hello to whoever he got to see. It was fantastic. He’s a great man and deserves all the credit he gets.”

1 Like
6973

Don’t know if this was posted already but it’s a cracking article.

6974

Should be FOTY but likely will be overlooked for McGeary.

6975

6 of the Tyrone team played underage for dungannon swifts!

6976
6 Likes
6977

James Horan will be chewing steel nails reading that.

6978

OOOOFFFTT. Fairly spot on. @Cheasty will be along to tell us if certain unlucky events went slightly differently in the game to mayos favour, then the journalist would be feting Horan to the high heavens

3 Likes
6979

That’s an evisceration.

1 Like
6980

Sure Mayo kicked it away, threw it away. Inherent in and indivisible from this basic acknowledgment of reality - which you do not want to acknowledge - is a very harsh degree of criticism of Mayo players, and by extension the management.

It is in fact your narrative which seeks to deflect criticism away from them.

6981

Journos love nothing more than whingeing about media access and somehow think the general public should get chapter and verse about it.

6982

This psychoanalysis of Mayo has gotten ridiculous.

Mayo and Tyrone are two pretty evenly-matched teams. They went toe to toe and Tyrone deservedly won, fair and square. The assertion that Mayo threw it away is ludicrous. Tyrone controlled all of the important aspects of the game. They had what it took to win on the day and could arguably have won by more.

4 Likes
6983

Do you think Mayo performed to their potential? I didn’t think they did.

6984

But if that’s the assertion - and it’s patently wrong - and even a cursory look at the final, never mind multiple viewings, would show that it is, it removes the rationale for criticism of the Mayo players and management.

You cannot make this assertion without fundamentally disagreeing with the entire premise of the article.

6985

It doesn’t matter. You could argue that Tyrone didn’t perform to their potential either and it would still make no difference. It’s all down to how you perform on the day and Tyrone were better.

6986

It comes down to preparation and culture at the highest level.

No doubt Mayo prepare better and have a better culture than 97% of teams in the country but if they ever want to win Sam, they need to prepare better than 100% of teams.

From looking at the semi finals and final this year it was clear that Tyrone were the best prepared of all the teams. They looked to have serious, serious work put into their skills. Brolly is right when he says Mayo play off emotion and while it gets them so far, it continues to only get them so far. When the pressure comes on in big games, their skills continue to desert them.

6987

Similar to how Limerick hurling teams used to perform, to my mind.

6988

Playing with emotion is not a bug for Mayo, it’s a feature. And it has been for other teams before, Armagh in 2002 - who are probably the closest comparison to Mayo in terms of both style and overcoming the weight of history - if they hadn’t dug into their reserves of emotion, they couldn’t have won. Neither could Clare in 1995. Emotion is a major reason for Mayo consistently being there or thereabouts. If you take that away, they likely won’t reach many more finals, if any. But in tight matches at the business end of the championship, it becomes about how you channel that emotion. They did that disastrously in this final and too often in these matches they haven’t done so.

A sports psychologist is important in helping to learn to channel all that. Mayo had Niamh Fitzpatrick in 2017 and that year was the closest they came to channelling emotion in the right way to enable them put in a great final performance - it was a great final performance. But even then Donal Vaughan couldn’t control himself.

1 Like
6989

The game has moved on hugely from 1995 and 2002. The dinosaur days of smashing a hurley on the table at half time and roaring the place down are long gone.

1 Like