In the world of Tyrone PRO Eunan Lindsay, when Joe Brolly told us three years ago that we could 'forget about Sean Cavanagh as far as he's a man', the Derryman would have been facing punishment from the GAA.
In his report to the Tyrone convention, Lindsay described the punditry game as a 'cottage industry'. That's one lucrative cottage industry for Brolly, Spillane, Loughnane and Co.
He also added that analysts make these comments without fear of punishment and that perhaps this should change.
The cottage industry that has developed around “punditry” by former players and managers on TV and in newspapers is one which must be looked at closely by the GAA centrally.
While players and management have been charged with bringing the Association into disrepute arising from comments after a match or on social media, punditry is unregulated, can be much more cutting and appears to be without the risk of sanction by the Association regardless of the personal nature of the comments.
Lindsay's problem appears to be with the national media rather than local journalists.
Mickey Harte, in particular, has had a chilly relationship with RTÉ since 2011. Since then, the Tyrone manager has refused to conduct interviews with the national broadcaster due to their leaking of a letter to journalists which he sent voicing concerns regarding Brian Carthy's absence from his role as a GAA commentator. Around the same time, RTÉ - on the John Murray Show - broadcasted a sketch which Harte viewed as insensitive.
It would certainly have been amusing to see Michael Lyster, acting on behalf of the GAA, having had the option of dishing a black card out to Brolly when He said that Cavan's football was 'as ugly as Marty Morrissey'.
Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
