McGuigan spits fury at Kerry duo

Tyrone’s Brian McGuigan has sensationally claimed Declan O’Sullivan exaggerated an injury to get him sent off last Saturday.

The Ardboe man, a second-half sub last weekend, said his opponent “smiled and sniggered” after David Coldrick dismissed him and compared the Kerry forward’s action to Cristiano Ronaldo’s wink following Wayne Rooney’s sending off in the 2006 World Cup.

McGuigan was scathing in his criticism of O’Sullivan who he believes, along with Colm Cooper, looked down on Tyrone. He recalled how O’Sullivan refused to shake hands with him after Tyrone beat them in a league game in Omagh in 2010.

However, it was last Saturday’s events in Fitzgerald Stadium which agitated McGuigan most.

“The one thing that is going to stick with me is the sight of Declan O’Sullivan smiling and sniggering when he got me sent off,” McGuigan wrote in his Gaelic Life column.

“I suppose it was a bit like when Cristiano Ronaldo had the wink when he got Wayne Rooney sent off at the World Cup. That image will never leave me. People might turn around and say I got Gregory McCartan sent off in an Ulster final [2003], but as I’ve said before, I never wanted to get him sent off. I regretted that he was. Declan O’Sullivan, however, I felt was more than happy to have got me the line.”

McGuigan went on to suggest O’Sullivan and Cooper are arrogant.

“Two boys I have found who always had an opinion about themselves were Declan O’Sullivan and Colm Cooper. They always gave the impression they looked down on you. When we were on trips away with the All Stars, I got on like a house on fire with Tomás Ó Sé, for example. But not those two boys. That’s not sour grapes, because they’re class players. But there’s a way to go about things.”

McGuigan even claimed O’Sullivan refused to shake his hand after Tyrone’s league win over Kerry two years ago. He also made reference to the Dromid Pearses man’s involvement in January’s ugly All-Ireland club JFC semi-final against Tyrone side Derrytresk.

“He was just pure ignorant. Fair enough, it was hard on them, the way they lost [to Colm Cavanagh’s late goal] but there’s still a way to conduct yourself.

“I think O’Sullivan and Gooch are from the same frame of mind as Pat Spillane, where they could never seem to accept that Tyrone could beat them... they didn’t like it when we came along and beat them not once but three times.”

McGuigan qualified that there are “many great people in Kerry” and recalled Jack O’Connor wrote him a “get well” letter after his serious eye injury in 2007. He also praised Kerry supporters for the ovation they gave Mickey Harte last Saturday.