Back to the football after week of controversy
Expert analysis from All-Ireland winner Sean O’Sullivan
W ITH ten minutes or so left in our 2006 All-Ireland quarter-final win over Armagh I was called ashore by Jack O’Connor.
The game had gone pretty well for me bar a nasty hand injury I picked up just before half-time.
I was going down on a loose ball when a stray boot made contact with the back of my left hand and it started to swell instantly.
It’s an injury that still causes me some pain to this day. Anyway as I wished Darran O’Sullivan all the best as he ran on (he would go on to score a cracking goal to finish off Armagh) I was handed an ice pack and I took my seat amongst the subs.
After a while Patrick O’Sullivan or ‘Pat the Bag’ as we knew him as stood up and started making his way up the steps towards me. Pat was secretary of the County Board at the time and the main point of contact for any official details that match day involved.
As he got closer I let my mind wander. I’ve won man of the match I thought! I was after a decent game, nothing out of this world, but yes that must be it. I had already gone through what I was going to say to Marty Morrissey or Joanne Cantwell in my interview when Pat threw a bottle of water in my direction.
“You’ll need to get that down you,” he said.
“You will be providing a sample for the drug testers after the game”. Talk about an anti climax! It was my one and only time being picked for a drug test playing with Kerry. At the time it was fairly new and if I am to be honest there was a real lack of professionalism about it.
Tommy Griffin and I were brought to a room under the Hogan Stand to provide our sample. Now as I mentioned I had came off with ten minutes to go and was able to get water into me.
Tommy, however, had stayed on for the full game so the minute the final whistle went Tommy was located and ushered away to do the test. I remember the whole process being very amateur from start to finish.
I was cracking jokes with the officials that it reminded me of a scene from the TV programme
The X Files and that for as long as I had known Tommy there