Joe Brolly believes Pat Spillane's comments on the Diarmuid Connolly incident influenced the CCCC's decision to hand the player a 12-week ban.

The controversy blew up again yesterday when Jim Gavin revealed that Dublin would not be giving one-on-one broadcast interviews with RTÉ or Sky Sports over their coverage of the incident which happened during the Leinster SFC quarter-final against Carlow on June 3.

Spillane said on the Sunday Game at the time: "This is a very obvious thing. Diarmuid was infuriated at a sideline decision, not giving the ball back.

"The pictures tell it all. A picture tells a thousand words; clearly going to Ciaran Brannigan, the linesman, clearly putting his hand on the sideline man, clearly pushing the linesman, which he's not entitled to do, clearly with his finger pointed, threatening the linesman.

"You prod a bear, you get a reaction. You prod Diarmuid Connolly, you antagonise Diarmuid Connolly, and you always get a reaction.

"He put his hands on the linesman, he pushed the linesman back, and a finger pointed in somebody's face sounds to me like threatening. Bottom line, its Rule 5 - minor physical interference. It carries a penalty of 12 weeks."

Speaking on the Sunday Game last night, Brolly said of his fellow RTÉ pundit, who wasn't present to defend himself: "He (Spillane) is a big boy, and he knows what he said. Of course Diarmuid shouldn't have touched the official, but at that stage, the officials had not taken any action in relation to it, and it was in the context of Connolly being held in the way that he was," he said.

"You have to say, it was like watching counsel for the prosecution. Pat had everything on but his Kerry blazer and his Kerry tie. I thought to myself after, the CCCC are going to act here."

Asked by anchor Des Cahill if he was blaming Spillane for the ban, Brolly replied: "At that stage, you were expecting that the Dubs could think, 'that's the end of the matter'. But once it had been jumped on - and it looked to me that Pat was reading out a script - and as soon as I watched it, I thought, they will have to go for him now."

Cahill asked Brolly if it was unfair to blame the Kerry great for pointing out that Connolly had put his hand on an official.

"He did put his hand on the official. But when you play it back, and slow it down, and talk of his past record. Let me put it to you this way. Imagine if that had been Colm Cooper. Your first reaction would have been the same: 'Are the officials not going to protect him? There are three men pushing, shunting him at the sideline. We'd be saying, 'do players like this not deserve protection?," the former Derry star responded.

"But because it is Diarmuid Connolly, and I think Pat bought into it, but there's a feeling that it is open season on Diarmuid. I did think it was over the top, I have to say. He is entitled to his opinion, but I strongly disagreed with it."

Dessie Dolan, who joined Brolly on last night's Sunday Game panel, also suggested that Spillane's analysis influenced the CCCC's thinking on the incident. 

"I felt that night it was pointed toward Diarmuid Connolly getting a suspension," the Westmeath All Star said.

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