Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
The whole thing is a circus & it wasn’t nice being dragged through mud
TALLY REGRETS TRAINING BAN ROW
It is not nice being an enemy of the public and treated as some sort of law breaker
DOWN boss Paddy Tally admits being ‘dragged through the press’ as an ‘enemy of the public’ wasn’t a pleasant experience.
The Mourne manager was hit with a 12-week ban, later reduced to eight, following a collective meeting of players in January which broke GAA Covid-19 regulations.
Down were also stripped of home advantage for their May 23 Allianz League tie against Meath, a game that will be played in Armagh’s Athletic Grounds.
Speaking on Sportsjoe’s GAA Hour podcast, Tally said the outdoors meeting in Newry to distribute training programmes was ‘quite innocent’.
But he acknowledged they broke GAA rules and ultimately ‘hadn’t got a leg to stand on’ in that regard.
Asked if he took any solace from Cork, Dublin and Monaghan being similarly punished, Tally said: “Absolutely not, far from it to be honest. I think the whole thing has become a bit of a circus
“I feel for anybody who has gone through that process because it’s not a nice thing to be dragged through the press and to be seen as some sort of a lawbreaker and some sort of an enemy of the public.
“The GAA aren’t like that and anybody that’s involved in it knows that. So it wasn’t a comfortable position to be in, I wouldn’t take any joy from the fact that it’s happened to ‘Banty’ or what’s going to happen to Dessie
Farrell or Ronan
Mccarthy (right) or anybody else in the same position. It is what it is and we have to just accept it and move on.”
Former Galway and Tyrone coach
Tally admitted that he ‘didn’t really understand the rules’ into it.” Tally said a member of around what constituted a the PSNI attended the gathering collective meeting of players at and was happy that, as an elite the time. team, they had broken no laws He said: “Looking back on it, of the land by meeting up. if I had to do it again I wouldn’t The Down chief said: “We have done it because the GAA weren’t breaking any laws. They did put the regulation in that were satisfied with what they there’s no collective (meetings). saw. I think the words the guy And by the rules of the organisation, said was, ‘Listen, I don’t want to 7.2 (a) or whatever the rule be holding you back, away you was, I remember looking back go. Get on with your training’.” on it and it’s when one or more News of Down’s infraction people are asked to be in a certain broke around the same time the place at a certain Cork footballers were spotted time at a training on a beach together in certain date, Youghal. that constitutes More recently the Dublin and a collective Monaghan football teams were caught training collectively. training On Down’s session, Tally said: session. “It was quite innocent. We were I didn’t supposed to go back on the 15th really of January and we had a lot of understand young players we don’t normally get an opportunity to see. the “We thought we’d go out and rules get a bit of a running programme until I really sorted, show lads what we wanted a wee bit of mechanics, started just so that they can get on reading with the work themselves.”