There’s Tyrone’s Joe McMahon with a big bloody hawk perched on his head

As GAA photo ops go, this has to be one of the weirder ones.

One of the undoubted highlights of the GAA season cranking up, at least for us, is the increase in bizarre GAA photo ops. Long gone are the days of a player simply standing in front of a car and if today’s shoot at Croke Park to announce Specsavers sponsorship of Hawk-Eye is anything to go by, we’re in for a vintage year of crazy pictures.

In a large set of pictures GAA head honcho Liam O’Neill and Tyrone’s Joe McMahon are snapped with a real live hawk called Tom (Tom-a-hawk, eh? We see what you did there).

The two lads don’t seem too bothered by the rather fearsome bird but of all the shots, one stands out for us. That’s the rather epic picture, above, of Tom perched on Joe’s head.

I suppose once you've won a few All-Irelands you don't scare easily. Joe looks to be quite enjoying it actually.