If there is one cardinal sin in the GAA, it's wearing auld soccer boots. There's a select few boots that are good enough to grace the surface of a football or hurling pitch, and much of that has to with their colour.
The golden rule is: the blacker the better. If you can get all black, you're onto a winner. A bit of a white trim is no harm, although you wouldn't want to go overboard with it either.
This is especially true if you have an old school manager in charge of the team. They deplore the sight of a colourful football boot coming into their dressing room.
One person who found this out the hard way is Cavan's Cian Mackey. The Castlerahan man is one of the most important players in the side that is set to contest the Ulster final against Donegal, but he learned the hard way not to be coming around the place flashing disco boots on a GAA pitch.
Eamonn Coleman was manager of Cavan at the time, and the All-Ireland winner had no time for that sort of messing in one of his teams. When Mackey got himself a fancy pair of silver boots, Coleman wasn't long about putting an end to those notions.
In the🗑️@CavanCoBoardGaa star @CianMackey recalls when Eamonn Coleman took exception to his silver boots😂
👉https://t.co/QQbWWr0SiW#bbcgaa @Doiregaa pic.twitter.com/mx1ma0G3hG— BBC SPORT NI (@BBCSPORTNI) June 14, 2019
Eamonn Coleman threw my boots in the bin after a match against Sligo in Markievicz Park. They were a pair of silver mercury boots, and Eamonn wasn't a fan of them.
I was after coming on and kicking 1-4, Eamonn came over and I thought he was going to congratulate me. He told me "don't you ever wear boots like that on my field again", then he took them off me and threw them in the bin!
I didn't know what to do. It was actually Mickey Graham that was there too, and he told not to get up and take the boots out of the bin until he left the dressing room.
A great manager, I was just a wee bit afraid of him for a little while!
Proper order.
