Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
HARTE BLASTS CELEB PUNDITS
MICKEY HARTE has backed Dublin manager Jim Gavin’s staunch defence of Diarmuid Connolly and hit out at RTE’S “celebrity analysts”. Gavin felt comments made by ‘Sunday Game’ pundits Pat Spillane and Colm O’rourke contributed to his player getting a 12-week ban for pushing linesman Ciaran Branagan during Dublin’s Leinster quarter-final win over Carlow, claims that have since been denied by the CCCC. Harte has refused to conduct interviews with RTE since 2011 yet without mentioning any broadcaster by name, Harte revealed he much prefers Sky’s “insightful” coverage. “I am sure Jim (Gavin) would not need me to support him, he has done quite well on his own to date,” said the Tyrone boss. “He is entitled to do what he needs he thinks to do. “It is a case of do we get quality analysis or do we get sound bites? That is the big difference. “Some people would call them celebrity analysts, they need to be really mindful of the fact it’s not about putting someone down to raise themselves up. “It should be ‘is there substance behind what I am saying?’” Harte reckons Sky pundits Jim Mcguinness and Peter Canavan do a far better job. “I am not going to deal with specific cases or broadcasters but there are a couple of men on another channel that I quite like listening to. “One of them is heading off to China (Mcguinness) and the other one is here (Canavan) and they are very insightful. “They analyse the thing in specific detail. There is an alternative there.”