They Said It ....

April 2007

“In my view, there is too much tolerance of the late slap across players when they are striking. Granted, we scored a great goal but the unfortunate aspect is that one of our key players was badly injured which is no good for anybody – and referees are obliged to protect players.”
Offaly manager John McIntyre is unhappy that Joe Bergin had to leave the field after scoring a goal against Wexford in a league game, arguing that players need more protection from referees

“Although the Longford game went without a hitch, I do have a question for the Council. Why was the provincial first round not played in a bigger stadium so that more money could have been made? If the game had to have been played at a bigger venue, more people would have been able to see it and as it was, it represented a €400,000 loss for the Leinster Council.”
Dublin Chairman Gerry Harrington speaks up at a Leinster Council meeting arguing that his county’s SFC encounter with Longford should have been played at Croke Park rather than Pearse Park in order to increase the gate money from the tie

“Managers are curtailed by Croke Park from expressing views but I’m not going to sit idly by and see what happened to Pa Bourke, Willie Ryan and Paul Kelly – there was bad temper displayed on those three. We’re asked to apply a lot of discipline and the spirit of the game but that didn’t apply. I’m not going to blame Ger Loughnane or anybody, but Croke Park sent out six officials to look after the interests of the Tipperary players.”
Babs Keating blasts the so called ‘rough treatment’ his side suffered against Galway in a league match and questions why the officials didn’t clamp down on it

“Football is a funny thing, but I often think that when I have a quiet first half I think of Padraic Joyce in the All-Ireland final when he kicked those 10 points in the second half. Padraic was brilliant in the second half, so that was something for me to aim at. So I always think of Joyce.”
Donegal’s Brendan Devenney admits that when he has played a poor first half, he always thinks of Padraig Joyce’s second half performance in the 2001 All-Ireland final as a source of inspiration

“It’s a great competition for lads to
bring them on to senior and I definitely wouldn’t like to see it go. I think communication is what matters. If managers can talk to each other and work out a bit of a schedule, all you need to be doing is training three or four times a week.”
Mayo’s U21 All-Ireland winning captain Keith Higgins talks up the underage competition as its detractors call for its abolition

“It must be pretty easy to motivate guys in strong counties where football is number one. But if he can achieve something with Wicklow, it would outweigh anything he’s done with Kerry, Kildare of Laois.”
Waterford football boss John Kiely says that if Mick O’Dwyer can achieve success with the Wicklow then it would be his greatest achievement in football