GAA quotes of the year

Talk isn't cheap. It's priceless, as our GAA quotes of 2005 prove below. The only place you'll see Colm O'Rourke compared to Che Guevara ...

"It's disgraceful. Lads are trying to get opponents sent off all the time. It a horrible tactic that's being borrowed from soccer. I played in some fairly tough games against Dublin, in my days with Meath, but I never saw a player feign injury. Where is all the manliness gone?" - Carlow manager Liam Hayes states his dismay at the current trend of players trying to get their opponents sent off.

"They had the hurling, and they had the heart. But why wouldn't they, it's bred into them with their mother's milk!" - Fan Larkin on hurling heritage in James Stephens.

"They (UCD) shouldn't be in it. I didn't want to say it beforehand, but it's a f**king joke, and if the Dublin clubs don't kick up, they're harmless men. Next year, are we going to have WIT in it as well, UCC too perhaps." - Philly Larkin, pictured, doesn't hold back.

"Up to last year, the county championship wasn't just a monkey on their backs, it was Planet of the Apes." - Our own Diarmuid O'Flynn on the Leinster and Kilkenny champions, James Stephens.

"It gives me no pleasure to see Offaly losing by that margin at Croke Park or anywhere else. All of us involved in the game love hurling and we're interested in the game's welfare. Offaly were All-Ireland champions in 1998, they were in the final in 2000. The respect we have for Offaly is born out of many years of suffering at their hands over the last 30 years." - Kilkenny manager Brian Cody on the Offaly side that suffered a 31-point mauling at the hands of the Cats.

"It was my worst nightmare come true. In sport you have to dream. We dreamed we could come here and beat Kilkenny, but this was our worst nightmare and we have to deal with it." - Offaly boss John McIntyre reflects on that hammering.

"If you take some of our players from the furthest points of north-west Donegal, they were up at 8.00 on Sunday morning to meet the team bus in Letterkenny, which then travelled south to Donegal town and on to Clones. I'd say they didn't get back to Gweedore until close to midnight on Sunday night after a swim in Murvagh and a meal in the Abbey Hotel." - Brian McEniff on the logistical difficulties for some of his players after their Ulster quarter final against Armagh was moved from Ballybofey to Clones.

Question: "Fintan Ginnity is our Fidel Castro. Will you be our Che Guevara?"

Answer from Colm O'Rourke: "I have no intention of going into the jungle of Columbia to get my b****x blown off me."

"I did at times meet a lot of opposition and a lot of hassle. In fact, I got some very unpalatable mail and unsavoury phone calls with a lot of things being said that could have been upsetting. But I really did not take any notice of that stuff because I think, if you have a point of view, you express it and if others decide on extreme measures to express their views, then they are flying in the face of democracy." - GAA President Sean Kelly reveals the lengths that some people went to in attempt to alter his stance on amending Rule 42.

"Mark is my own flesh and blood. What father would not be hurt to hear cowardly and cruel comments directed at him from so-called Tyrone supporters?" - Mickey Harte, pictured.

"When a player puts on a county jersey, he takes on a major responsibility which should see him give no less than 100% effort. But that wasn't the way it turned out for our lads today. We probably had only two players who put in the necessary level of effort, and we only played with sufficient fire and passion for perhaps the first 10 minutes of the second half." - Cavan manager Eamon Coleman after they lost to Tyrone by 16-points in the McKenna Cup.

"My backside is good and hard at this stage. You know yourself going into these things that you're going to fall at some stage along the way and you have to be prepared for that." - Liam Hayes prepares for life as an inter-county manager with Carlow.

"We all have our ways of dealing with it. Mine might differ to Mick O'Dwyer's - he's a pioneer and I'm not, if you get my drift. I'll put it this way, we certainly sat on a high stool a couple of nights deliberating." - John Maughan on how he spent the winter reflecting on Mayo's 2004 All-Ireland final defeat, by eight points, to Kerry.

"These new regulations will kill the game of hurling within 12 months." - Brian Cody gives his verdict on the new experimental rules after Kilkenny play Dublin in the Walsh Cup.

"If you support this you are supporting the formation of a new association that caters for everything and stands for nothing." - Former GAA President Con Murphy before the vote on the controversial Rule 42 at Congress.

"Tradition won't play any games or score any points for you." - Dublin forward Alan Brogan, pictured below, on Dublin's chances of winning a Leinster title where the other three teams left are Kildare, Laois and Wexford.

"Ah sure, it was even said about me when I was playing - Roy of the Rovers one day, useless the next. Days you'd expect something from us were the days we'd disappoint." - Larry Murphy the week before a hotly-tipped Wexford sunk without trace against a supposedly ageing Clare side in the All-Ireland quarter-final.