Jim McGuinness upped the ante with his second Irish Times column during the week. It certainly piqued the interest of Joe Brolly - he dedicated a large part of his Sunday Independent column to a rebuttal of McGuinness.
The former Donegal manager said that the Sunday Game had become more "crass than class" with Brolly's 'joke' regarding Marty Morrissey epitomising this scourge. He went on to opine that a "culture of sensationalism" had taken over RTÉ's GAA analysis and that the national broadcaster should endeavour to "control the content".
Joe Brolly was not going to take these criticisms lying down. The Derryman informs that he sees McGuinness' sentiments as an attack on "RTÉ's free speech ethos" but that it came as no surprise. This was due to the control which McGuinness exerted over the Donegal panel during his tenure as manager. Presenting players with behavioural contracts and confiscating mobile phones on the morning of big games he believes were particularly egregious examples of a "dictatorial masterclass" which precipitated an "atmosphere of paranoia" surrounding the squad.
McGuinness' use of the word "respect" throughout his column is something Brolly takes umbrage with. He cites the Donegal man's refusal to speak to journalists following the 2012 All-Ireland unless Declan Bogue left the room as a specific example of disrespect.
Brolly is also critical of Sky Sports throughout the piece and the "Rose of Tralee world" which they operate in, never rocking the boat. That just happens to be a sphere in which Jim McGuinness will be working as an analyst for Sky this summer.
