Jim’s RTÉ snub will not serve Dubs well
I WAS staggered by Jim Gavin’s decision to effectively snub RTÉ last weekend in response to what he felt was the Sunday Game’s unbalanced handling of the incident which led to Diarmuid Connolly receiving a 12-week ban.
My view on that has not changed; I really don’t believe that Connolly’s actions merited such a suspension but what’s done is done.
I am betting that the first thing Gavin told his players in the aftermath of Connolly receiving his ban was to put this business behind them and move on.
That would certainly have been Connolly’s desire – apparently he did not even want to take the matter to the Central Hearings Committee – so it is hard to imagine he will be thankful to his manager for ensuring he is back in the public eye this weekend.
What baffles is that Gavin’s engagement with the media is never more than superficial.
I remember a journalist referring to Kerry press nights when Páidí was manager as a ‘festival of yerra’s’ which is basically the art of talking while saying nothing, which he took as a compliment.
Gavin had a city take on that – ‘the process’ replaced ‘the yerra’ – in ensuring he never gave up very much anyway; certainly not as much as he offered up while explaining his RTÉ snub last weekend.
I have heard the suggestion that he is trying to create a siege mentality, but I don’t believe that, mainly because it does not need creating.
When you are the best team in the land, you don’t really have to tell players that the rest are out to get you.
But in taking such a hamfisted approach in dealing with this, he has for the first time hinted he is feeling the heat. And his players will not thank him for that.