McGuigan lays into Kerry
The occasion was Tyrone legend Frank McGuigan’s inauguration into the MBNA Kick Fáda Hall of Fame and, naturally enough, talk turned to the inductee’s native county and to the championship season in general.
McGuigan was a marksman of some distinction in his playing days and he had no hesitation in shooting from the lip on this occasion, giving it both barrels to Kerry in general and Pat Spillane in particular.
Last weekend the RTÉ pundit claimed that Tyrone’s defeat to Cork in the All-Ireland semi-final had been a fatal blow to the Ulster county’s claim to the title of the decade’s best team.
McGuigan himself gives little truck to such arbitrary titles and awards – “crap” he calls it – but he was gobsmacked to hear Spillane make such a sweeping statement on the back of one defeat to a fine Cork team.
“Anyone can read into that Kerry people are hurting that Kerry couldn’t beat Tyrone,” he said. “They knew that whenever Cork beat Tyrone they had no chance to avenge those defeats. I think that’s the bottom line. They can’t take Tyrone beating them every time they’ve played this decade.”
He added: “I remember one time Pat said when Tyrone weren’t winning All-Irelands that we should send a bus load of women down to Kerry and it would sort them out. I can tell Pat this decade they should have been sending their women up to Tyrone … and there’s a few guys on the loose.”
As for the rest of the championship? Well, there isn’t any one team McGuigan would like to see win it but there is one he certainly wouldn’t like to see bounding up those Hogan Stand steps next month.
“I don’t even know who (Cork) will be playing. You can’t rule out Meath because Meath are unpredictable. Last time they played Kerry in Croke Park they beat them. Kerry were very impressive against Dublin and they are definitely a good side.
“I personally hope Kerry get beaten. If Meath get to the final I don’t care who wins it. If Kerry win it, I hope Cork hammer them, for obvious reasons. Spillane being one of them. Nothing against Kerry players. There’s this Kerry thinking that they have a hoodoo on all these teams and that they are the supreme artists of Gaelic football.
“I know they have so many All-Irelands and they’re good players, but Spillane has really rattled people’s cages. I would love to see Cork beating Kerry in the final, stuffing them, and I would love to see what Joe Brolly has to say.”
His admiration for Cork after last Sunday’s events is evident, their combination of physicality and footballing ability in particular, but he believes that Tyrone were complicit in their own downfall on the day.
His criticisms of his own county are diluted, however. McGuigan thought he would be lucky to see Tyrone claim one All-Ireland title in his lifetime, let alone three, and he awaits their approach to next season with interest. Speculation continues to mount over which players may or may not return to the fold for 2010 but McGuigan believes most will soldier on, including his own boys Brian and Tommy.
“Talking to the players, my own sons included, they’re all hell bent on not going out on a game like that. They want to try to make amends next year, to show that they are better than they were last Sunday.
“The most of them will stay on for another year. Even Dooher, I think, is resigned to playing another year. Probably as an impact sub, not as a starter. It would still be great to have him there as part of the panel, especially for the young players.”
It was Brian McGuigan whom John Miskella struck during the second-half of last week’s game and, though the father is delighted to hear that the Corkman will be free to play in the final, he was scathing of the disciplinary system that has allowed it.
“I would never want Miskella missing an All-Ireland final. The one (problem) I would have is the different rules for the different players. John Bannon made a farce of the match on Sunday. It was laughable some of the things he did. He went into the umpire, who saw the incident, and he must have said a straight red or nothing.
“He says ‘I saw nothing’ or ‘I saw Miskella striking’. It’s one or the other. There’s no way it should have been a yellow card. It’s either off or nothing. I’m glad he won’t miss the final because it was only a minor thing and I think Brian did elbow him first.”
Like Mickey Harte, McGuigan actually believes that video evidence should be inadmissible in the first place. Brian McGuigan was banned retrospectively on such a basis after a league game against Derry this year.
“They shouldn’t bother with TV at all. The ref should deal with whatever happens on the field at the time. There’s six men along with him – four umpires and two linesmen – and if they can’t see it, too bad.
“My problem with this is, the umpires nowadays are too old. They aren’t sharp and alert enough to see things. Sure they can’t even tell sometimes if the ball’s gone over the bar. Why are they there? Why don’t they got a young lad, around 30 or 35, who has good eyesight, and get them to do it? Referees get in these old men, some of them 65 or 70. They’re not capable of doing the job.”
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