"There's a red light flashing for the GAA that they'd be wise not to ignore"
June 25, 2016
Sunday Game panelists Tomas O'Se and Dessie Dolan at the launch of RTÉ's GAA Championship 2016 coverage.
©INPHO/Cathal Noonan.
Ireland players' post-match celebrations in Lille on Wednesday night got Tomás Ó Sé thinking.
Reflecting on Martin O'Neill's side's momentous 1-0 win over Italy, the Kerry great was pleasantly surprised when he saw pictures of the players toasting their success, and qualification for the knock-out stages of the competition, with cans of beer in the dressing room.
"That was a mighty win in Lille the other night for our boys in green and I wonder did anything strike you about the players' celebrations after?," he writes in today's Irish Independent.
"Like how, four days before a monumental game against France, management allowed them have a few beers. And here's the thing. Nobody took umbrage. Nobody was phoning Joe Duffy or grilling Martin O'Neill at a press conference about what in the name of the Almighty they were doing supping drink so close to the biggest game of their lives.
"And Hallelujah for that.
"Trust me, they'll be more than fine by the time Paul Pogba and company stand before them in Lyon tomorrow and anyone who thinks otherwise has probably learnt everything they know about sport from a library book."
If it was GAA players 'supping bottles' in advance of a big championship game, the Kerry great reckons there might be a different reaction...
"Imagine Jonny Cooper or Diarmuid Connolly being photographed supping bottles in Coppers last Wednesday with the Meath game just four days away? There'd be consternation. Not alone would they not be playing tomorrow, chances are they'd be gone off the Dublin panel for a whole summer.
"Now I'm not for a second recommending lads going on the beer in the week of a championship game, but I do believe there's a red light flashing for the GAA that they'd be wise not to ignore. And that light is drawing attention to the number of young players, particularly in the weaker counties, now opting against committing to inter-county.
"In Kerry, I always felt that the social side was vital to us being successful, vital to a sense of camaraderie. It was a release valve that, ultimately, made us more united. We always worked damn hard, but we played harder than anybody else too, though few enough people probably knew it."
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