‘GAA stood to David in Pardew incident’
Carlow hurling manager John Meyler — who played senior hurling for both Cork and Wexford, father of Hull City midfielder and Ireland international David, is convinced his son’s gaelic games upbringing stood to him in the recent Alan Pardew controversy.
The Newcastle United manager received a seven-game ban for headbutting Meyler in an extraordinary incident on the touchline which garnered massive international coverage at the beginning of March.
But the player’s controlled response to the provocation also won him many plaudits, with Hull boss Steve Bruce and Ireland assistant manager Roy Keane among those who praised him for refusing to make a meal of the situation. Now, David’s father John says his son’s reaction to the incident was entirely in keeping with the GAA values instilled in him as a youth.
“I think it was playing hurling and football with Blackrock and St Michael’s that David played when he was a young fella growing up in Cork, that stood to him,” he says.
“I think the way David reacted epitomises the way GAA players react, when they do get a belt or a slap, they just don’t go down.
“That quality of standing your ground and being manly is built into you when you play in the GAA, you generally don’t feign injury and go down too lightly.
“Those qualities that David picked up from being involved in the GAA, as a young lad, have stood to him, and helped him in the Premiership.
“Shane Long would be the same – he comes from a GAA background and you won’t see him falling too many times in the box.
“The diving and all the simulation that goes on in the Premiership would not be part and parcel of the GAA, because it’s the manly thing to stay on your feet.
“So that is what David has learned and, in that incident with the Newcastle manager, David was never going to make a meal of that. It’s just not his way, it’s not the way he was brought up.”
According to his Dad, David also dealt admirably with the ensuing firestorm of publicity.
“There was no upset,” he says. “These things happen in all sport and you just have to deal with them when they happen. It’s how you deal with them and not to react to what happened in a negative way, or to respond even in your own mind, that’s important. So David just had to be positive, not let it affect him, and move on and I think that he has done that well.”
John Meyler’s own sporting commitments with Carlow’s hurlers meant he was unable to attend Hull’s 3-0 FA quarter-final win over Sunderland but he did later see David’s fine goal against his former club, followed by the much talked about celebration in which he ‘nutted’ the corner flag.
“I wasn’t there, we had a game. But I saw his goal. What I saw was, it was a corner to Sunderland, and he broke from his own box to score in the other box, which meant he must have ran 80 yards, which is a huge credit to him, to get up the pitch at that stage of the game.
“As for the celebration afterwards, it was a release of all the tension of the previous 10 days, and everybody commented on the fact that it was funny; it broke the ice and put an end to the incident.
“You can’t take life too seriously and it was not disrespectful. It was just a young man celebrating with humour and I think it was seen as that – drawing a line under it. And it did.”
After the serious injury setbacks his son suffered earlier in his career, John is relishing David’s current success as he continues to add to his international caps haul — most recently his cameo in the defeat to Serbia, features prominently for Hull in the Premier League and now gets ready for a cup semi-final against Sheffield United next month.
And Meyler senior will be there to see the latter game at Wembley, though not amongst the prawn sandwich brigade
“No box for me,” he says, “I will go in and be among the Hull fans. The semi-final will be tough. They are managed by Nigel Clough, they are in Division One and they are going quite well, and they have a chance of getting into the play-offs so Hull cannot take anything for granted and it will be a difficult game. It’s a one-off situation and they’ll have to get it right.”
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