Both sides at fault as characters remain hidden
Some of the GPA chairman’s views have already been challenged by fellow members of the fourth estate — and with good reason — but the article contained many worthwhile observances and drew a welcome spotlight on what has long been a deteriorating state of affairs.
It isn’t the intention here to get into the rights or wrongs of what Cusack wrote or what that actual state of affairs may be between one group of people who do their damnedest to disguise their true feelings and another whose intention it is to squeeze every last drop of meaningful information out of them.
The pity of it all is that we so seldom hear the true thoughts of a group of people who, though undoubtedly racked by indecision and doubt like every other human from time to time, tend to possess a go-get-them positivity and dedication to their art which is something we could all do with in these darkened economic times.
That much struck home last Tuesday when the bosses on the sports desk detailed yours truly to a swanky hotel in the centre of Dublin to meet Conor McGregor, a man whose sense of self-worth and lack of inhibitions in sharing it shone through with virtually every utterance.
McGregor, for anyone not familiar with the world he inhabits, is a mixed martial arts fighter and one who, since April of this year, is pursuing his dream in the ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and he has already made a name for himself.
It took McGregor 67 seconds to put away his first opponent on his debut in Sweden and such has been his impact that the UFC head honcho Dana White whisked him around Las Vegas last month. So it is probably no surprise that the Dubliner should display a certain air of confidence when he speaks to the media.
He may not be a boxer but we have become well accustomed to the loquaiscousness of those involved in combat sports for a living, whether it be Muhammad Ali or, closer to home, the likes of Steve Collins. With some it smacks of arrogance but it is a say-it-as-you-see-it certainty that can be most welcome.
McGregor delivered juicy lines with the matter-of-factness of a postman delivering a parcel and his dismissal of what it is his next opponent might bring to the table when he fights in Boston later this month was the pick of them. “I don’t look too much at my opponent,” he said. “For me, there is no opponent. I am the opponent.”
It is impossible to envisage a scenario where a GAA player, or anyone involved in team sports, would use such words. Not everyone carries themselves with the bravado of a Conor Mcgregor, of course. It was John Wooden, the legendary coach of the UCLA college basketball team, who coined the phrase about how sport doesn’t build character but, rather, reveals it.
The pity is that, for the most part, we don’t get to see that character beyond the white lines.
There’s no doubt but that, like Cusack said last week, the media has played its part in cementing an environment of anodyne anecdotes in our mainstream sports but Davy Fitzgerald showed on Wednesday that GAA personalities can deliver cogent, considered arguments without necessarily being combustible.
The Clare hurling manager spoke passionately about the need for safety guidelines when it comes to concussion, he criticised what he said was the abuse Brian Cody received from a small minority of Kilkenny fans earlier this summer and he opened up on how he dealt with the Doubting Thomases who inevitably knocked at his door whenever one or two results went against him in the past.
Fitzgerald is an experienced interviewee who has been in the public eye as a player and manager for almost a quarter of a century now and penned a column for a national newspaper to boot, and yet he is in charge of a group of players of whom we know next to nothing beyond what they can do on the pitch. A penny for their thoughts.
- Email: brendan.obrien@examiner.ie Twitter: @Rackob
