Ryan McMenamin clears up infamous clashes with Kerry star Colm Cooper

Ex-Tyrone defender Ryan McMenamin has rejected the long-held theory that he bit and gouged Colm Cooper.

McMenamin was widely held responsible in Kerry for a bite on Cooper’s hand during the 2003 All-Ireland semi-final. He was also alleged in the county to have eye-gouged Cooper during the 2005 final.

But the three-time All-Ireland winner attempts to set the record straight on Laochra Gael on TG4 next Tuesday. Regarding 2003, he recalls: “Peter (Canavan) came to me and he says, ‘The Gooch is saying it’s coming out that he got bit. I was saying, ‘I take it they’re blaming me’. I’ve done bad stuff on the field but I don’t think I’ve ever bit a man now. But when Peter told me about it, he said, ‘Don’t be worrying, there’s still a few ones sore down in Kerry that they got beat’ so I didn’t lose too much sleep over it.”

Cooper had been getting the better of McMenamin in the early stages of the 2005 final when the Kerry forward was treated for an eye injury. “There was an incident I got blamed for. He went down with his eye. But again I can put my hands up here and I can say ‘It had nothing to do with me, that there’.

“I kind of caught myself on, I said to myself: ‘You’re playing in an All-Ireland final here — this man here (Cooper) is going to take you to the cleaners. I kind of got a lucky break one time. He went down in the corner (on the end-line) and I kinda pushed him and I took the ball. Once I got my hands on the ball, I started getting more confident and the game started to ebb in our favour. We started getting back on top.”

The 2005 All Star admits he would have landed himself in trouble with the authorities had he extended his on-field behaviour off it. “It’s been said to me a lot of times ‘You’re nothing like the b***** you are on the field’. I’m big enough to know that if I went on like that in real life, I would probably be in jail somewhere, that’s the reality of it.”

McMenamin rues dropping his knees on John McEntee during the 2005 Ulster final replay when he was fortunate to only pick up a yellow card. “The game was going away from us and I probably did something I kinda regret, and it caused a bit of a fury over the thing. It boils down to frustration. I phoned John and I apologised to John.

“It was my style of play that I wanted to win everything that was out in front of me and I probably went too intense. I probably did cross the line. I’m big enough to hold my hands up and say ‘I did wrong’ and rightly so and I got punished.”

McMenamin was retrospectively banned for four weeks arising from the incident but was cleared after Tyrone brought his case to the Disputes Resolution Authority.

* Laochra Gael - Ryan McMenamin will be broadcasted on TG4 next Tuesday at 8pm.