Spillane stands firm on right to criticise

Former Kerry All-Ireland winner Pat Spillane last night mounted a defence of the right of ex-players to criticise inter-county GAA matches after Director-General Padraic Duffy had called on past stars to show more support for the association in his annual report last month.

Spillane, speaking at the official launch of the 2012 Munster GAA championships in Mallow, questioned Duffy’s argument and voiced his opposition to imitating the analysis trends in competing sports, like soccer and rugby. He insisted any negative comments on his part were simply reflective of the negativity that existed at the moment in the game.

“I was interested to read the Director-General’s comments about a lot of us ex-players in the media. He was saying we as GAA people are not as supportive of the association as we should be. But you look at soccer analysis and Sky, it’s just popcorn stuff, easy peasy. Suddenly Gary Neville comes along and he’s the boy wonder of the analyst world because for the first time ever here’s an analyst who’s calling the game as he sees it. Rugby is the sexy sport and the in-sport in this country, and how dare anyone have the misfortune to criticise it? You’ll be ostracised altogether.