Joe Brolly opened up a new front in his war against modern Gaelic football in his Gaelic Life and Sunday Independent columns last week, calling out the sports psychologists that accompany many inter-county teams these days.
He ridiculed possibly the most famous of all these gurus, former Armagh All-Ireland winner Enda McNulty.
In his column, Brolly lampooned the inspirational aphorisms that McNulty is occasionally inclined to dispense via his twitter page.
He even threw out a couple of tweets in that mould on Monday.
Friendship is merely loneliness without friends
— Joe Brolly (@JoeBrolly1993) December 21, 2015
Everything is difficult before it is easy — Joe Brolly (@JoeBrolly1993) December 21, 2015
Take great care when irrigating the mind @StageandSport. Too much & it will flood. Too little & it will wither & die
— Joe Brolly (@JoeBrolly1993) December 21, 2015
@markxgerard absolutely spot on Mark. We can not find the answer unless we have asked the question — Joe Brolly (@JoeBrolly1993) December 21, 2015
Most contentiously, he linked the discipline of sports psychology as practised by McNulty and co to the work of multi-millionaire bullshit-artist Deepak Chopra.
Kieran Shannon, sports psychologist and excellent newspaper columnist (our knowledge of his sports psychology prowess is scant but we'll presume he's excellent in that field too), used his Examiner column to reply to Brolly's swingeing attack on McNulty.
Shannon, who worked with the Mayo seniors under James Horan, began by saying that in ten years of studying the discipline of sports psychology he had never once come across the work of Deepak Chopra.
He disputed that sports psychologists were coining it in the modern game. And he decried the 'appalling personal and professional attack on Enda McNulty'.
Shannon detailed the effect McNulty's counsel had on the likes of Paul Galvin and Brian O'Driscoll.
But the record shows that he is a very pragmatic and effective practitioner that has made a profound and positive impact upon some of this country’s greatest sportspeople.
Just last year alone two leading sports autobiographies detailed how McNulty helped them in 2009. That June Paul Galvin was feeling pissed off and burned out. Against Cork he’d been sent off. Again. After a discussion with McNulty, he realised his pre-match preparation was too intense. He had no way of switching off from football. No strategy, no routine.
Brolly was sent the article by a couple of people. What was his response to Shannon's article? There was a touch of inevitability about it.
@thecailinrua @KieranShannon7 from the man who supervised Mayo's mental collapses under James Horan
— Joe Brolly (@JoeBrolly1993) December 22, 2015
@thecailinrua@KieranShannon7 he had one job. And he failed. He puts himself out there. So he must be judged accordingly — Joe Brolly (@JoeBrolly1993) December 22, 2015
