RTE analysts Tony Davis and Joe Brolly engaged in a bitter war of words on Sunday night as the latter’s incendiary comments about All-Ireland champions Cork gained traction.
Brolly’s criticisms of the Rebels were initially carried in his column for Ulster-based Gaelic Life magazine last week and were given a broader readership by a report in the Irish Examiner on Saturday.
The outspoken pundit wrote that Cork “have been able to bludgeon and bore their way through every team in the country with their primitive approach” – but that the recent Munster final showed Kerry still have their measure.
He added, “I said last year [Cork] are a dumb team and I saw nothing against Kerry that might cause me to alter that assessment.”
Brolly also courted controversy – well-trodden ground for this particular teeny-weeny Derry man – with a damning assessment of last year’s All-Ireland winning captain Graham Canty.
“‘What do people see in Canty?’ a Kerry man texted me at half-time [in the Munster final, in which Canty endured a difficult time against Kieran Donaghy and Declan O’Sullivan].
“‘I don’t know’ was my response. In fairness, Kerry people are very harsh judges of a footballer. Someone like Graham, whose strengths are his physique, athleticism and never-say-die attitude, underwhelms them. They have that in Kerry, but on top of that they have the skills. Graham does not. He has been described as a star in the hybrid Rules game and is always discussed as a great in the media. I don’t see it.”
Heated debate
The subject matter prompted a heated discussion in the Sunday Game studio last night as Davis, himself an All-Ireland winner with Cork in 1989 and ’90, took Brolly to task for “disrespectful” comments about the All-Ireland champions.
Backing up his assertion, Brolly insisted that the Rebels struggle for scores from their half-back line and midfield, which he feels is a prerequisite in the modern game.
By that point Davis’s face was approaching the colour of a typical Cork jersey as he hit back with the stammered but nevertheless killer line: “John Miskella has scored a lot of scores over the past three years.”
It’s likely that we’ll see exactly what Cork are made of soon enough, as they’re scheduled to meet Kerry in the All-Ireland semi-finals next month – provided the two of them overcome Mayo and Limerick in the quarter-finals before then.
