Joe Brolly's Sunday column in Gaelic Life was an entertaining romp (is it ever anything else?) that deserves another look. He railed against the 'winning is everything' mentality that he contends has disfigured the GAA in the past decade.
Interestingly, he spoke of the feeling of bored anti-climax that enveloped him shortly after he won the All-Ireland with Derry in 1993.
Eschewing the usual programmed responses of 'oh it was a dream come true' and 'it took a while to sink in', he said he stood in the showers after the game against Cork, thinking 'What the fuck was that all about? Is that it?'
He then cheers himself up by noting:
Luckily for me, I was back in court two days later kicking the crap out of an angry RUC sergeant.
As far as Brolly was concerned, the 2014 season represented the absolute pits, the awful nadir.
Last year’s football championship was the worst on record. Robotic, systematic and unwatchable. Take Mayo and the Dubs and James O’Donoghue out of it and there was nothing to savour. The final was intensely depressing and joyless, a bastardisation of the ideal. Kerry won but who cares?
Read the rest of the article here.
