Not for the first time in his football career, Sean Cavanagh has raised the ire of Joe Brolly.
Brolly, of course, told us years back that we could, 'forget about Sean Cavanagh as far as he's a man' for his cynical rugby tackle on Conor McManus during Tyrone's 2013 All-Ireland quarter-final win against Monaghan. Brolly later said that he had apologised to Cavanagh for his comment.
That has not stopped him from taking further pops at the 34-year-old for his conduct on the pitch.
During Tyrone's one-point defeat to Mayo last weekend, Brolly criticised Cavanagh for 'rolling around' following a collision with Mayo's Danny Kirby.
No Tyrone game is complete without sean Cavanagh rolling around on the ground holding his face
— Joe Brolly (@JoeBrolly1993) March 26, 2017
In a Sunday Independent column dedicated to castigating Tyrone's style of play, Brolly elaborated further, and amusingly, regarding what he saw as Cavanagh's theatrics.
Of course no Tyrone game is complete without big Sean - all 6' 4" and 15 stone of him - rolling on the ground holding his head in his hands. Midway through the second half he ran full steam towards Danny Kirby then went sailing up into the air as though he had stepped on a landmine. As he lay on the Omagh turf, apparently breathing his last, I thought of the Tyrone state funeral that lay ahead, followed by a ceremonial burial in the very spot where he came to rest. One imagines the priest, no the bishop, amongst a crowd of 30 or 40 clerics on the pitch, saying, "It will be a great consolation to his loved ones, that Sean's last roll was in a place where he had some of his greatest rolls, here in his beloved Healy Park".
Brolly watched on as Cavanagh 'lay there stricken' until referee Conor Lane produced a black card, after which the Tyrone player 'raced back into the heart of the defence.'
