Sometimes a story just piques your interest. Like the one I was once told a story about two inter-county footballers. Lads who relished a bit of devilment. They, as most people in their twenties do, enjoyed having a few drinks and socialising. Quite regularly the two would turn up in a local pub and start chatting with a group of women. After a while, they would disappear to use the facilities. Nothing usual about the situation so far. That is apart from when the lads would emerge from the toilets bollock naked and then attempt to continue the conversation. A casualty of modern training was certainly the modesty of these two.
On Friday night's Off the Ball, there was another story GAA anecdote which raised eyebrows. Following a segment during the week about the association's desire to rid their games of 'sledging' aka trash-talk, the show received numerous texts regarding a method which some Ulster teams used to rile opponents.
Producer Donny Mahoney said that the texts detailed how players would take to the field with the phone number of their marker's girlfriend written on their arm.
One of the most common forms of sledging seemed to be players writing the phone numbers of girlfriends of other players on their arms. There are specific allegations made about certain teams doing it, northern [inter-county] teams. They would get the girlfriend's number on their arm of the man they were marking.
It was also mentioned that the teams who employed the tactic have been involved in All-Irelands in the last ten years.
Some players, possibly a little bit insecure regarding their relationship, were undoubtedly distracted as they wondered how that number was acquired.
Picture credit: Stephen McCarthy / SPORTSFILE
