JOE BROLLY: David, Pat and Ervin
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I INTERVIEWED David Gough at the weekend, our greatest referee. He supports my four new rules. Q. The sweeper is the real game killer? A. It is. It has become an awful boring game to watch Joe. Even to referee. It is dreadful. I wouldn’t go to watch a football match now and I used […]


JOE BROLLY: A TOXIC CULTURE


ON Sunday just past, I was at the Knockmore-Aughamore championship match at Knockmore. Jerome Henry, one of our best referees, was in the middle and refereed the game very well indeed. Everyone was on their best behaviour, the cloud of the Roscommon affair hanging over every game played last weekend. Afterwards, I shook hands with […]


JOE BROLLY: A game called Gaelic Football
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CLUB championship season is upon us, and it is hard to feel excited. We go because we support our team. We go because we have always gone. It is a triumph of optimism over reality. The sweepers will kill the game. The teams will hold possession endlessly. They will work the ball forward and back and […]


JOE BROLLY: LAUGHING LARRY AND NO LAUGHING MATTER
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I AM still recovering from the sing song at Knockmore GAA club. Michael English on the piano makes everyone sound good, even the glamorous brunette, who is the only woman I know who can see in three keys simultaneously. If the club was bouncing to ‘Courtin in the Kitchen’ it went to a whole new […]


JOE BROLLY: The problem with pulling the brakes
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WICKLOW hurler Daniel Staunton won man of the match in a club championship game at the weekend. After the game, a bewildered looking Daniel was presented with a bag of new season Wexican Queens potatoes by a beaming Louise Hollingsworth of Kelly’s Fruit and Vegetables, Wicklow Town. He will need a wide mantelpiece. When we […]


JOE BROLLY: Galway v Clifford
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THE Dublin empire has fallen, replaced by a democracy of flawed challengers. Tyrone came out of the blue to win it last year. When they did, it was so mentally overwhelming for them that they were unable to recover in time to defend their title. They were a ghost team this season, walloped by Derry […]


JOE BROLLY: THE BALLYBOFEY TRIANGLE
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DESSIE Farrell said last week that Dublin are on a good trajectory. Which was as plausible as the Russian ambassador saying they are mounting a humanitarian operation in Ukraine. Maybe Dessie meant a good downward trajectory. If that is so, then against Kildare on Sunday their trajectory got even better. It’s not that the Dubs […]