Brolly vs Davis

Ghosts of 1993 in RTE studios.

I think Derry win again.

I greatly dislike Joe Brolly. I don't know the man personally but he seems like a bit of a plank. Davis FTW.

Brolly sniggers a little to much. Davis is a cop. Bring back Toal.

Brolly is a barrister. Davis is a guard. Brolly won a debate when most people would say Davis had the easier argument.

Brolly - for my money - is a level above all analysts, except O'Rourke. Has anybody the Examiner article?

1. Joe Brolly
2. Colm O'Rourke
3. Senan Connell
4. Peter Canavan
5. Ciaran Whelan

Tohill, O'Cinneide and Lyons all got the axe.

Loyal2TheRoyal wrote:1. Joe Brolly
2. Colm O'Rourke
3. Senan Connell
4. Peter Canavan
5. Ciaran Whelan

Tohill, O'Cinneide and Lyons all got the axe.

What planet are you on. Joe Brolly and his type are the worst type of analysts in the GAA, thats too soft they are the worst thing to happen to the GAA in 20 years. Thank God for Journalists like keith Duggan to keep the sanity.

Haven't seen the examiner article but couldn't see a whole lot wrong with Brolly's argument last night
The Cork system where the half backs and midfielers are all strong ball carriers means that they often end up in good positions and they do kick a lot of bad wides - The flip side of this is that the create far more shooting chances than most sides and their Midfield and half backs - Miskella in particular probably have more attempts that their peers.
Though in the big games players like Philip Jordan, Thomas O Se, Sean Cavanagh when he is playing midfield are not as wasteful.

The fact that Cork won last years AI by one point despite steamrolling midfield and still needed O Connor to kick a few wonder points in the second half is also a fair argument.

Davis did not engage in the analysis and decided to try and take some sort of moral high ground whilst getting clearly rattled. However I suppose it is a bit of a mismatch as I felt that Brolly QC then perhaps goaded a bit on the "ye can't beat Kerry" when he could have rolled this into his argument a bit better rather than throwing it back as one liner.

I enjoy Brolly's sense of humour and love reading his weekly articles in either the Gaelic life or the Mail on Sunday, he gets his message across whilst throwing in the odd scenario, personal experience or quote that can bring a smile to your face. On Sunday evening we basically saw Joe winding the entire county of Cork up and in doing so further infuriating all the Kerry folk.

On my last visit to the Kingdom the people there wanted to know and learn all they could about Mickey Harte who is held in very high esteem. Brolly on the other hand is about as popular as Ricey McMenamin is in Armagh and often tales of "who does he think he is giving off about this and that with his one hungry all ireland medal...." He also has a tendency to interrupt Davis and Spillane which clearly irks both of them in the studio.

I for one enjoy him now but hadn't much love for him either pre 2003 when he constantly wound us Tyronies up about having No All Irelands but has since warmed to us and championed our successes in the noughties. His mothers a Tyrone woman too!

Brolly was smack on when he said that Cork could beat anyone except Kerry, it's the truth and Cork aren't the amazing team everyone was salivating over!! They hammer Down then get their **** handed to them on a plate by Mayo!!! Completely overrated and only won the All Ireland last year by cashing in on the hard work of other teams!

bald eagle wrote:Brolly was smack on when he said that Cork could beat anyone except Kerry, it's the truth and Cork aren't the amazing team everyone was salivating over!! They hammer Down then get their **** handed to them on a plate by Mayo!!! Completely overrated and only won the All Ireland last year by cashing in on the hard work of other teams!

welcome back BE - its been a while!!!!!

Jaysus look at Cork's record of 6/7 years and give some credit FFS lads.

Record? Credit? You mean the 1 All Ireland they have won for having this "brilliant" team? They have to play a maximum of 4 games (not including replays) to get to an All Ireland Semi Final, when Donegal had to play 4 games to win Ulster! They are over-rated, simple as!

bald eagle wrote:Record? Credit? You mean the 1 All Ireland they have won for having this "brilliant" team? They have to play a maximum of 4 games (not including replays) to get to an All Ireland Semi Final, when Donegal had to play 4 games to win Ulster! They are over-rated, simple as!

They have been Kerrry more times in the last 6/7 years than anyone bar Tyrone. How many do Mayo or Galway have to play and yet they are not in semis every other year.

Jayo Cluxton wrote:

bald eagle wrote:Record? Credit? You mean the 1 All Ireland they have won for having this "brilliant" team? They have to play a maximum of 4 games (not including replays) to get to an All Ireland Semi Final, when Donegal had to play 4 games to win Ulster! They are over-rated, simple as!

They have been Kerrry more times in the last 6/7 years than anyone bar Tyrone. How many do Mayo or Galway have to play and yet they are not in semis every other year.

Nobody claims that they are the best teams since time began in all fairness, and what does a Semi Final count prove? FFS Fermanagh and Derry were in the Semi not so long ago!!

I think they have consistently been the second best team for the last 3 years certainly and no shame in being second to Kerry.

Jayo Cluxton wrote:I think they have consistently been the second best team for the last 3 years certainly and no shame in being second to Kerry.

A matter of opinion i say, they are good but not this "wonderful" team everyone creams themselves over and they got caught out by Mayo for what they are, one dimensional!

bald eagle wrote:

Jayo Cluxton wrote:I think they have consistently been the second best team for the last 3 years certainly and no shame in being second to Kerry.

A matter of opinion i say, they are good but not this "wonderful" team everyone creams themselves over and they got caught out by Mayo for what they are, one dimensional!

I never said they were wonderful BE but they gave some teams right hidings - Meath, Kerry, Cavan, Roscommon and Down that I can remember. They lost 3 first choice attacking players this season but nobody bothers to mention it. Imagine Kerry shorn of Donaghy, Cooper and Declan O'Sullivan.

Brolly was spot on about Cork. He is also spot on here


Brolly’s Bites - Wall of silence shames our great association


23-10-2010 Sarsfields and Round Towers tussle off the ball in the under 21 football championship game at Sarsfields. Photo: Martin Rowe/Adrian Melia Photo


Published on Friday 29 July 2011 10:30

On our way into the Ulster final, we were chatting excitedly about the game. Then, as the crowd turned in towards the stadium, we were greeted by young men and women holding placards promoting the Mark McGovern fund. We soon sobered. (See Appeal details below).

Mark, the 22-year old son of Danny and Josie, left work just over six weeks ago to spend the summer in California. The ‘Sunshine State’ has Arnie, vineyards and gaelic football. Mark – a promising footballer - made his debut for Fermanagh in this year’s McKenna Cup. So when he contacted the Ulster club in San Francisco, they welcomed him with open arms.

On the 25th of June, he stepped out in broad sunshine to play his first game. Within 15 minutes, he was having seizures on the ground, before passing into unconsciousness. He has been in a coma since. One of those ubiquitous off-the-ball incidents. Witnesses told the San Francisco PD they turned to see an opposing player standing over the stricken boy, saying “You won’t get up from that.” Five weeks on, his family maintains their heartbreaking vigil in the ICU at San Francisco General.

The incident typifies the gratuitous violence that dogs the game at club level. On Wednesday past, my club St. Brigid’s played a Division One match against Moneyglass. In the home fixture earlier in the year, there was an accidental clash of heads between our midfielder and theirs as they both went for the same ball. Their man eventually went off concussed. Ours played on. Ten minutes into the return game on Wednesday, he was poleaxed by a knee into his face after the ball had gone. As he got off the ground, face covered in blood, his attacker said “Remember me?” He was lucky. At midnight, the doctor at the Royal Victoria stitched his face and sent him home. It is the third serious off-the-ball assault that has been perpetrated on a St. Brigid’s senior player this season.

The GAA is used by some as a violent playground. They can do this because of the foul conspiracy of silence that surrounds on field assaults. I have been briefed to defend four different footballers in the last 18 months, all charged with serious assaults during games. None went to trial after complaints were withdrawn and witnesses didn’t appear.

After a player was injured in an atrocious incident in a club game between Augher and Moortown two years ago, one contributor to the Hogan Stand website calling himself ‘Barnicles’ wrote....“At least the Moortown men won’t go to the police like some other members of the GAA fraternity in Tyrone.”

I was at a charity night for Marie Curie nurses four weeks ago and met Joe McMahon, whose cheek was swollen as tight as a drum. A month earlier he had his jaw broken in a treacherous attack from behind during a club game. “What can you do?” he said to me, shrugging his shoulders.

Less than a month ago, Christy Cooney said that the problem of gratuitous violence had “improved enormously”. Tell that to the referee and County Board chairman who were knocked unconscious after the Tyrone ladies’final last month. The president said this sort of incident “shouldn’t occur but some people lose the run of themselves and these things happen”. It is not a defence I have ever contemplated running in front of a jury.

Less than a fortnight ago, during the Offaly Division One football league final between Ballycumber and Edenderry, Sean Doyle, a 17 year-old Edenderry player was allegedly struck in the face by a Ballycumber selector, damaging some teeth and leaving him with a bloody face. The Gardai are investigating. I can almost hear the ranks closing....

In a rare example of justice being done, Judge Catherine Murphy presided over a case in Dublin recently involving an off-the-ball attack on a 22 year-old Kilmacud Crokes player. The medical evidence before the court documented that his gums were separated from the bone in his mouth, he lost one tooth and fractured two others. The assailant (who was convicted of the offence) allegedly kissed his fist in triumph after the assault. The judge in her sentencing remarks was highly critical of “the amount of aggression that is accepted as normal by GAA clubs.”

After Mark McGovern was assaulted, one of his team-mates was told by an opponent “You won’t get an eye-witness”. Almost five weeks on, not a single eye-witness has come forward. On Tuesday this week, the San Francisco Police Department made a televised appeal for witnesses. They have been confronted by a wall of silence.

Judge Murphy is right. It is time for all of us in the GAA to examine our attitudes to gratuitous violence. The conspiracies of silence. The back-slapping in the club bar afterwards. The culture is rotten and unsupportable and survives only because no serious, comprehensive effort has been made to deal with it. If we don’t act, it is only a matter of time before another terrified family is gathered round a hospital bed, listening to the bleep of a ventilator.

How you can help support Mark and family

Mark McGovern is uninsured. His family have limited means. The hospital bills from San Francisco General are already enormous. A fundraising effort is being co-ordinated by Mark’s club, Belcoo O’Rahillys GFC. Five trustees have been appointed to oversee the fund. The following link is to be found on the Belcoo O Rahilly’s Website ([You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] ) for anybody wishing to donate online: [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.] , or you can donate directly to the following account:

Mark McGovern

Support Fund

Bank Of Ireland, Lisnaskea:

Account No: 85880288:

Sort Code: 90-50-53.

Even a small amount would make a big difference to the family’s morale. It is important that they know they are not alone.

The club is also running a series of other fundraising events, including a Four-ball Golf Tournament at Blacklion Golf Club, Blacklion, Co Cavan, on the week of August 21st to the 28th, costing €100 per team. The main prizes are four all-Ireland football tickets and four all-Ireland hurling tickets. Groups can enter by emailing [You must be registered and logged in to see this link.]

Brolly is a WUM - he even admitted it on air last Saturday.

I really doubt very much he was wumming in the above article

If there were a few more WUMs on here the place would be a lot busier,instead they just get called out straight away! That's another matter though!

In fairness Brolly is not the worst but like all Derry people he should be taken in very small doses.

Brolly is a bit of a character and certainly a wind up merchant but suffice to say he does make sense when he talks - its the gimp of the cnut squinting through the glasses at times that makes me laugh. Spillane doesnt know how to handle him.

As for Davis he has a voice that is hard to listen to for any great length of time, but he isnt a bad analyst.

Jayo Cluxton wrote:In fairness Brolly is not the worst but like all Derry people he should be taken in very small doses.

As someone who hasn't lived in Derry for years, i can't really argue with that comment!

As Boc & Jayo have said, he is a WUM but more often than not his wind ups are complete sense. I really like him as a analyst and lets face it, RTE was a bit of controversy otherwise he wouldn't be there and neither would Spillage! Davis is a very calm, balanced analyst, a bit like Tohill was and to be honest too many of them would bore people!

Joe Brolly is far and away the best GAA analyst around. He has all the controversy of Spillane but all the ice cool and common sense of Tohill. He is not infallible but I must say I usually find myself agreeing with the things he says, even if he sometimes tries too hard to be a scathing journalist. But he's no sycophant to the regular conventions of GAA writing, he pushes the boundaries and courts controversy but backs his remarks up with evidence.