MAKE NO APOLOGIES
Winning is never saying you’re sorry
ANDY Moran is a big boy. He is 33 years of age. He has made over 150 appearances and counting for Mayo, and he’s as much at home in Croke Park as any footballer in the country.
It’s a long, long time since he has needed his hand held. Really, Andy Moran does not require any sort of minding at all.
But, after last weekend — a weekend when the vast majority of teams we saw in Croker were not just weak and defensive, but damned cowardly — the Roscommon team and their management thought it necessary to issue an apology to Andy Moran.
Yes, Roscommon, who are meeting Mayo in an All-Ireland quarterfinal replay on Monday, said sorry to an opposition player. Yes, they did! Unbelievably! Disastrously! And in doing so they brought political correctness in the GAA to a whole new, unnecessary level. ‘A section of Roscommon supporters tried to upset Andy Moran by booing him while on or near the ball,’ the statement revealed, before adding, ‘We strongly urge all supporters to please refrain from booing any player.’
You would think (though you would be completely wrong in thinking this!) that Roscommon boss Kevin McStay and his lads would have enough things to be doing in the days after failing to end Mayo’s stubborn but miserable summer, without worrying about Moran’s feelings.
But, obviously, this Roscommon team is made up of a remarkably sensitive and polite bunch of men — which may be one good reason why they’ll win nothing more this summer, other than a half-witted Connacht title.
And we’re to take it, I presume, that not one of McStay’s lads out on the field last Sunday had one bad, demeaning, insulting word to say to any of their Mayo opponents? Might be true.
Because in the sorriest statement I have ever witnessed from a football team in quite some time, it was also clearly alluded that every last man on the Roscommon team served as an alter boy, or dearly wished that they had done so. The statement contained this line, which we can believe to be a com- bination of horses*** and complete hypocrisy or, which Heaven help us (and help the Roscommon team and their supporters, more importantly), might just be true.
‘We as a team have a value set and we always try and play the game in a sporting manner, and we expect our supporters to support in a similar manner.’
On second thoughts, there’s no helping a team that can come out with such polished tosh at a time when the likes of Dublin and Kerry are quite likely eating their own alive in training.
THERE was actually a photograph of Andy Moran, which has appeared several times in different newspapers over the years, that was used in the days leading into last Sunday’s meeting between Mayo and Roscommon. It has Moran facing the Hill 16 end of Croker.
He’s got an open hand behind each of his ears — as he asks Dublin’s more vexed supporters to shout as loudly as they can, and let all of their bile flow down that same hill.
Like many great footballers and hurlers, Moran is a man who could not care less what opposing supporters have to say for themselves. As a matter of fact, he knows that the noisier they become the more certain it is that he is genuinely
annoying them. The best players feed off noise and animosity as much as they lap up love and attention.
Moran will have been mostly embarrassed by what the Roscommon team had to say for themselves this week, and if he is not, then he should be.
The statement from Roscommon was a low point in this season for Connacht football, but it also has to be said that last Sunday the three Connacht teams who got to strut their very best stuff in front of the whole country did absolutely nothing to convince anyone that they have it in them to land an AllIreland title any time soon.
As a threesome, Mayo, Galway and Roscommon were simply underwhelming. But at least Mayo have an excuse. They’ve been on the road, promising us and entertaining us, for the guts of seven years and of course they are tired and dispirited. They can be excused for going through the motions at the business end of the season.
But Galway? What a withering effort they gave against a Kerry team that was, as usual, half-dozy and three-quarters lazy in another quarter-final — it was a sad, totally inept performance, and one that made Galway laughable.
Too many Galway footballers of this generation are going to die
wondering what might have been if they twinned some guts with some bravery.
And, then, just when we thought a bunch of footballers in the west could not make even greater fools of themselves, Roscommon decided to step up and ask for some manners from their own folk.