Spillane is making waves in new roll as podcaster
“THIS is paradise,” says Pat Spillane.
He’s out walking in the forest, overlooking Kenmare Bay. The weather is seriously behaving itself.
“There isn’t a cloud in the sky,” he enthuses like he’s basking in the glory of a Kerry All-Ireland final victory.
Maybe this is another victory for Kerry over the rest of us. Now they’re claiming the weather.
“The sun is splitting the rocks,” he continues. “Kenmare Bay is just… ah Jesus… This is Shangrila. I am blessed.
“There’s one thing you wouldn’t miss about The Sunday Game.
“The only thing I hated was a summer’s weekend, leaving Kerry on a Saturday night and getting home on a Monday and missing the hottest weekend of the year when Kerry is buzzing – tourists, weather.
“I used to hate it, 10 or 12 hours stuck inside with bad air conditioning.”
Oozes
Generally of an infectious disposition, the 67-year-old oozes a rare and wonderful zest for life.
And why wouldn’t he. He can do his new podcast, The Game on Sunday, with Michael Lyster and Tomas Mulcahy from his kitchen table.
His weekend’s are taken up watching his son, Pat junior, ripping it up with Sligo.
Apart from the effing cameras’ in the crowd – “We are private people” – he’s loving being a fan again, paying into games and everything.
When the Sligo people come up and thank him and wife Rosarii for allowing their son to play for the county, he can’t help thinking of the Kerry supporters he is used to dealing with.
“I said it in my column last week, we do highs and lows to extremes,” continues Spillane.
“We were high after the Munster final, kicking goals – boom, boom, boom and then after Mayo, we are down rock bottom.
“We are spoiled with success in terms of sport. Paidi’s ffing animals, absolutely to this day is still true, because it’s about success.
“Even delivering the AllIreland last year, as the (Kerry) players are finding out, if you don’t deliver this year you are the greatest so and so. Their memories are very short.
“Whereas in Sligo the amount of people that after games come up to us and thank us for allowing our son to play for them.
“It’s great to see. They are just so appreciative. They are proud people. They are not used to success, but they are flying the flag.
“Now they have put huge work into coaching, games development, and games promotion and they are reaping the rewards with 17s, 20s and senior.
“Their under 20 team, there are 23 football clubs, and 19 of them are represented. Isn’t that brilliant? That’s what all counties have to do – maximise their resources.”
The story of Pat junior would warm your heart, even if you weren’t his father, or had a preconception of him.
“They just gave him the chance,” says eight-time AllIreland winner Pat.“They filled him full of belief and confidence.
“Gave him coaching and he is living the life of an intercounty footballer. He is loving it. And it’s great. And we love it.
Senior
“He never complains. Look, he couldn’t get a game with his club and a year later he was playing in a Dublin senior final, and a year later he was in Croke Park starring for Sligo.
“Look, he is living the dream but he deserves every bit of it. Football is a tough sport. There are more losers than winners. “He had a dream and by Jesus he chased that dream. He worked and every setback he worked harder.” Spillane might well have been (left) (below) analysing his own son on The Sunday Game.
But it has moved on, and so has he.
“I have them all recorded – do I watch them from start to finish any more?”he laughs.“I flick through it.
“There are days now people say, ‘Do you miss it?’
“No-one will ever say, ‘Jesus you should have heard the debate on referees last night’, and stuff like that.
“I said, ‘I am not interested’. “What people forget is, television is entertainment. Ten per cent of the population want to be educated.
“Your social media warriors and another small cohort, the anoraks, they want a deep dive analysis – zonal analysis, the low blocks.
“There’s 80-90 per cent of the people watching the Sunday Game, they don’t know what ‘a low block’ is and don’t give a shit what ‘a low block’ is.
“They don’t know what a ‘back door cut is’ and don’t give a shit what ‘a back door cut’ is.
“They want to know roughly why one team won and why the other team lost. The big thing is, they want a bit of entertainment.
Capture
“With our Podcast we are trying to capture what makes the GAA so great and what makes the GAA such a wonderful organisation, and the sports are great.
“It’s the crack, the passion, the colour, the controversy, the arguments, the opinions and the rivalries.
“And that sense of fun and crack is what we are trying to capture in the podcast for those 45 minutes. I have been entertained and I’ve had a good time.
“I swear to god I was in the studio when they had the arrows showing the kick out strategy. I am not stupid and I’d be watching it.
“I wouldn’t have a clue what’s going on, because after three or four arrows I was lost.
“And if I’m lost after three or four arrows by Jesus, Mrs Murphy in Cahersiveen and John Joe Sullivan in Belmullet, they’ve long gone.”
One other aspect of The Sunday Game he doesn’t miss is the
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abuse on social media for days after the programme aired.
He can see ironies everywhere he looks when the newer pundits are criticised for being bland, wooden, formulaic or to stats/coaching/tactics orientated.
“It would be easy for me to say, a bit like the football, ‘Ah Jesus, things were way better in my day than they are in this day’, and they’re not,” says the nine-time All Star.
“It’s a bit more nuanced than that. It used to always rile me. My father used to be raving up about the great games of the past... there wasn’t.
“There were far more bad games in the past. The football ers are better. They are more skillful. They are fitter. There’s