Gaelic Games

July Road: After-match melee puts RTÉ panel right off their game

Plus: Joe Brolly’s about-face on Rory Gallagher; Galway minors make the final; Kerry back to bite the Red Hand

Galway's Damien Comer clashes with a member of the Armagh panel on Sunday at Croke Park. Photograph: James Crombie/Inpho
Mon Jun 27 2022 - 05:00

The RTÉ Sunday Game Live panel were rightly exercised by the melee at full-time in the Galway v Armagh game, with Pat Spillane particularly agitated.

“I think it’s scenes that we shouldn’t hide behind regardless of what county’s involved. People talk about unsavoury, it’s not, it’s disgusting,” proffered Oisín McConville.

“It’s disgraceful!” interjected Pat.

Oisín: “It’s something that we just don’t want to see, simple as that. There’s a load of cliches that we can roll out at this stage but...”

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Joanne Cantwell: “Just look closely at Damien Comer...”

Pat (interrupting): “Look at Damien Comer, it looks like... we should be here praising a great game, instead we’re looking at disgraceful scenes. A shame on all the players involved.

“There was a gouging incident! This is terrible!

“Jesus, holy God! We’ve so many rules and regulations here in Croke Park, there’s a million rules and regulations and you send two teams running in in the same spot straight after extra time [sic]. It’s crazy!”

Respect for Rory

Derry manager Rory Gallagher with his kids after the All-Ireland SFC quarter-final game between Derry and Clare at Croke Park on Saturday. Photograph: Evan Treacy/Inpho

July Road ordained Derry as the Team of the Year some weeks back and that feeling has grown stronger since.

Only Galway and Armagh have taken the scalps of even two Division 1 sides in this championship; Derry have taken three. They also created history in their win over Clare when they became the first Ulster team ever to score five championship goals at Croke Park.

Derry All-Ireland winner Joe Brolly may have even changed his mind on Rory Gallagher.

Last November, Brolly tweeted: “Like all Rory Gallagher teams, Derry did not and could not attack, creating a veneer of respectability on the scoreboard due to a long range free taking masterclass from Shane McGuigan,” while in December, he asked a fellow tweeter, “do you think Rory Gallagher gives a f**k about Derry?”

Galway good to go

Galway's Colm Costello celebrates winning the All-Ireland Minor Football Championship against Derry at Parnell Park, Dublin on Saturday. Photograph: Evan Treacy/Inpho

A great weekend for Galway football was completed by their minors seeing off Derry by a point in the All-Ireland semi-final. They will now meet Mayo, conquerors of Kerry, in the first-ever all-Connacht All-Ireland final in any grade of inter-county football.

Interestingly, Galway have actually lost three times in the competition to date yet came up trumps in the All-Ireland series. The Tribesmen were beaten by Mayo (1-15 to 0-4) and Leitrim (3-8 to 0-12) in the Connacht group stages and, while they beat Sligo in the provincial semi-final, they lost the final (0-13 to 0-7) to Mayo again. But they have since taken the scalps of Dublin and Derry to advance to a fourth All-Ireland minor final since 2016.

Kingdom come

Tyrone’s collapse is already being regarded as possibly the worst All-Ireland defence ever. In their wake, as in their other three All-Ireland winning seasons, have come Kerry and Jack O’Connor.

The Red Hands lifted Sam in 2003, 2005 and 2008 and on each occasion, amazingly, O’Connor led Kerry to the league and championship double in the following season.

The Kingdom have secured the league and are now two games from the big one. The Empire strikes back, again?

Word of Mouth

“I don’t think the lads would have been happy with how they played.” — Clare manager Colm Collins with the understatement of the summer.

Number: 17

Minutes between Armagh taking the field for their warm-up (1.12pm) and Galway doing likewise (1.29pm).