Diarmuid Connolly is one of the more interesting characters in the GAA over the last couple of decades.
He was an incredible footballer, one that was capable producing moments of pure magic on the pitch. He did that for Dublin on countless occasions down through the years, quite often during defining periods of the biggest games of the season.
On the flip side of that, he was often a prickly character that had a tendency to lash out on the pitch. He also was perhaps not as focused on his inter-county career as some of his peers during that period.
One of the best footballers we have seen in the 21st century, Connolly played the game in a way that was very attractive to GAA fans, something that was quite the contrast to the defensive style that dominated the game at the time.
As it turns out, even the Dubliner was almost put off the sport by this approach.
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Diarmuid Connolly recalls game that made him want to quit GAA
Blanket defensive systems were all the rage for much of the 2010s, especially after Donegal's all-Ireland win in 2012. It resulted in some rather dire spectacles for GAA supporters, with even some players questioning their future in the game as a result.
Speaking on RTÉ's The GAA Roundtable, Diarmuid Connolly recalled how playing in a league game against a very defensive Derry team made him consider giving up the sport altogether.
Fair play @dermoc123 well said, hit the nail on the head 👍I pic.twitter.com/sgXHgszVF5
— Harry Roberts (@HarryRobertsi) January 24, 2024
I remember playing a game against Derry here in the league and it was 0-4 each at halftime. We came in at halftime thinking 'I don't want to play football anymore'.
That's how bad it was like. It was so bad I was like 'this is terrible, this is not enjoyable'. If we go around and start promoting that kind of craic, it will stick.
It stuck for about ten years after Donegal did what they did, people adopted that because they got a bit of success.
But now we see the exact opposite of that. Meath are trying to kick the ball, Dublin are trying to kick the ball, Kerry are trying to kick the ball, and they're getting joy out of it...
That's down to coaching. I had Mick Whelan as a coach growing up, I had Pat Gilroy as a coach, Tony Diamond as a coach, and we were always taught to kick the ball.
It might look like it's off the cuff, but it's not off the cuff, it's being coached. If you're coaching guys to be defensive, that's what they're going to do. If you coach guys to attack and be attack-minded, that's what they're going to do.
The game in question came during the 2015 National Football League campaign, a match Dublin would win 0-8 to 0-4.
While there is still plenty of work to do if we want to make inter-county Gaelic football a more attractive prospect to the masses, the defensive trend mentioned by Connolly has been reversed somewhat in recent times.
As he points out, a number of teams are returning to the kicking style that so many GAA fans enjoy.
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