O’Donoghue left wincing by Gooch criticism

All Star Kerry forward James O’Donoghue has admitted RTÉ pundit Martin McHugh "did me no favours" with his two-trick pony comment about Colm Cooper.

McHugh drew criticism for his television claim about Cooper following Kerry’s All-Ireland quarter-final win over Galway.

McHugh stated that O’Donoghue, yesterday confirmed as GPA Opel Player of the Month for July, is, “a better player than Cooper in my opinion. He’s one of the greatest I’ve ever seen. I’m my opinion, Cooper is a two-trick pony. That lad there [O’Donoghue] has six or seven”.

O’Donoghue said he interpreted McHugh’s remarks as high praise but revealed he was left wincing when the pundit commented on Cooper.

And the Munster final hero admitted he was forced to avoid social media sites for several days because of ‘abuse’ directed at him over the issue.

“I tried to keep away from it, people were writing to you on Twitter saying, ‘you’re not as good as the Gooch’. And I’m like, ‘I know, I didn’t say it!’

“They’re quick to throw in the bit of abuse. But look, it’s a thing that I try to keep away from and not really comment on. All I could say is, everyone around the country has huge time for the Gooch. I don’t think he deserved to be criticised out of the blue for no reason.”

Asked if he was flattered by the comments, O’Donoghue said: “The first half of it, I was. And then he said the Gooch thing and I was thinking, ‘don’t say that, jeez’. Look, it’s nice to get a compliment like that or be spoken of well on The Sunday Game. But obviously, down in Kerry, we have huge respect for the Gooch. He’s our main man. Two trick pony? I think it came out of his mouth before he had time to think about it.”