GAA PUNDIT Joe Brolly has launched an astonishing attack on Donegal – comparing the regime to a recent Russian space programme which saw cosmonauts locked away from all contact with the outside world for 500 days.
And the Co Derry man has leapt to the defence of Kevin Cassidy after the All Star was dropped from the county panel this week for giving away internal information on the team to the author of a book.
Said Brolly: “Kevin Cassidy is a fine young man. Warrior on the field, altar boy off it. He teaches severely disabled children at the ‘Little Angels’ school, is married and has twin baby daughters. It goes without saying that he is a terrific Donegal man, having spent the last decade fighting for the cause.
“You can tell a man by the way he plays his football, which in Kevin’s case is all that needs to be said. Now, at 30 years of age, his freshly minted All-Star gleaming on his mantelpiece in Gweedore, he has been banished from the Donegal squad, becase of some details he gave to Declan Bogue about Donegal’s year.
“The idea behind Declan’s book “This is our Year,” was to get the inside track on all nine Ulster counties from either a player or manager. The result is an honest and interesting book, which prompted Eugene McGee to reflect that he was: “Astonished at the frankness and sincerity of the players.”
Brolly went on to discuss how an American footballer employed ‘trash talking’ as an on-field tactic and that the Donegal team had discussed it.
And he insisted: “The point is that Kevin tells the author that they discussed trash talking as a group and it’s value in certain circumstances. You don’t say!
“Gaelic football is a community game. Ten All-Ireland medals are not worth the loss of one good man. Jim and Rory have acted foolishly. They have spoiled the chemistry of the group.”
The RTE pundit referred to the recent Russian space programme and how cosmonauts were locked away for more than a year from the outside world. This, he said, cannot be done in a community-based GAA game.
