Late in Dublin's defeat to Monaghan in the opening round of the National League last month Jonny Cooper and Conor McManus were caught in a tussle.
Just outside the Dublin 13m line, McManus executed a takedown more commonly in the octagon than on the GAA pitch.
On Twitter at the time, John Kavanagh, coach to Conor McGregor and several other MMA fighters, called it a "Beautiful example of one of my favourite takedowns, Ashi Waza." He also offered to provide Cooper with some training to ensure it did not happen again.
Delightful pic.twitter.com/6frGem47DA
— Ah Ref! (@RefComeOn) January 27, 2019
Speaking on Virgin Media's Six O'Clock on Monday, Kavanagh said he subsequently had a back and forth with Cooper off Twitter.
"I was giving him a bit of a ribbing," said Kavanagh.
"He was doing some grappling on the pitch and he got thrown. We spoke off Twitter and he was trying to convince me that he only got thrown because he didn't want to get black carded.
"The other guy caught him with a nice takedown but give me a couple of weeks and I'd have him more stable on his feet."
Interestingly, earlier in the evening Kavanagh tweeted about his appearance on the show, saying that he would speak about a "super secret session" he'd had with the Dublin footballers. That tweet was later deleted and replaced by one not mentioning Dublin.
Kavanagh was asked on the show about training an inter-county team.
"I had some interactions," was his reply without going into specifics.
He did mention some work he'd done with the Irish international rules side when Kieran McGeeney was involved.
"The biggest one I had was when the guys were going away for the Aussie rules and Kieran McGeeney was in charge of that team. I did quite a bit with them," said Kavanagh.
"Obviously, they have to learn the skills involved. I helped them a bit with their balance. There is some vertical grappling. Also, the grit and determination that those guys have is incredible."
Kavanagh also spoke of his relationship with McGeeney.
"Kieran is training with me for almost ten years now. I just gave him his brown belt in Brazilian jiu-jitsu - there's only a handful of them in the country. He's an impressive individual for sure."
Picture credit: Sportsfile
