Dave Hannigan Article - Evening Echo

[SteelFixer]

Just wondering did any of ye seen Dave Hannigans Article in the back page of the echo sports supplement yesterday (friday).

Its heading is - "Kerry epitomise all that is wrong in Gaelic Football"

The opening paragraph states; "Last Sundays Munster football final showcased again the horrible cynical streak that is running through this current kerry side"

This is the general tone of the piece and he elaborates further down the article.

Load of nonsense really, but the man is entitled to his opinion.

It also carries a picture showing Tom Shea pulling Derek Kavanaghs jersey as he was about to take his by now famous shot the last day. The caption accompanying this picture refers to the foul tactics kerry used to upset corks game.

I'll try getting the article up on the forum here tomorrow.

[Deleted]

Who is Dave Hannigan?

The name rings a bell alright but certainly not for GAA coverage.

[Owenabue]

Lads, I wouldn't worry about it if it was in the Echo...

[pony]

Lads, does anyone here take the accusations of Kerry being this really cynical team seriously?

I don't mean just from the cork camp, other ppl have said it about us.

[smileyniley]

when reading that rag,you must take into account that the sports editor is well balanced when it comes to kerry as he has a chip on both shoulders.he is none other than diarmuid o donovan who trained the cork minor footballers & was beaten 4 years out of 5 by kerry.
the majority of cork supporters dont even read it as they compare it to the sun.

[austinstacksabu]

The Dave Hannigan journalist I know is the writer with the Sunday Tribune and Sunday Times. He's a fantastic journalist and writer who spent a few years (and maybe he's just home), in the US covering US sports in detail. He knows his sport incredibly well and is very unbiased. I've always kept an eye on his writings, his golf stories are well worth finding.

But then, it mightn't be him!!

[smileyniley]

i have been reading the echo sports coverage all week & not once have they mentioned the following :-
1-wide ball given instead of a clear 45 for paul galvin in the first half.
2-no mention of padraig reidy being taken out by a third man tackle which lead to the cork goal.
3-noel o leary's kick on paul galvin
4-graham canty's sliding tackle on declan o sullivan
if any of the so called sports journalists in the echo are interested i have a video of the game which i will gladly share with them.

[dart]

I had the perfect view of Galvin's point which sailed over the bar, but was waved wide.

[sullyschoice]

just ignore it, sour grapes

[Deleted]

Thanks Stacks. That was the guy I was thinking of.
I would be surprised if it were him writing for the Echo!

[MrRasherstoyou]

There yis go again - yis'll do anything for a bit of siege mentality! "No-one likes us - we dont care"

[kerryman]

If Morgan didn't complain about us and this guy did he must have an entire McDonalds on each shoulder.

[diehard]

Was nearly sick when i reas this article this hanniagn dude is a real langer.

[gruaigcatach]

kingdomexile said:

Thanks Stacks. That was the guy I was thinking of.
I would be surprised if it were him writing for the Echo!

it is him. he does one piece a week in the echo as well as his bits in the times etc.

[currowexile]

Can someone post the article?

[osama]

Dave Hannigan won a load of All-Ireland medals id say

[inforthebreaks]

osama said:

Dave Hannigan won a load of All-Ireland medals id say

about as many as tom Humphries, or Sean Moran from the Irish times. both of these are excellent journalists. Con Houlihan too. You dont have to have all Ireland medals.

[SteelFixer]

currowexile said:

Can someone post the article?

Never got around to posting this last weekend, but here it is now.

Evening Echo; Friday, July, 6th, 2007

Kerry epitomise all that is wrong !

Last Sundays Munster final showcased again the horrible and cynical streak that is running through this current Kerry side.

Time after time when Cork poured forward in the second half, the player in possession was fouled to kill the momentum of the move and to allow the backs to regroup.

Their motto seems to be to haul the opponent down once he moves over the halfway line and before he enters the sort of range from which a free may be converted.

Kerry's winning points were superb to behold but what had gone before from them was nauseating and illustrated for the umpteenth time why so many people can't abide gaelic football just now. More often than not the team that is more cynical and calculating in its fouling tends to win the day. There were times in Killarney when Kerry looked like one of the rugby league teams from the north of England such was the persistent and methodical approach to stopping Corkmen from going by.

The most depressing aspect of the whole farce was that Pat O' Shea has enough talented footballers to be able to rise above that sort of muck.

It says something about how the sport has degenerated that according to a recent report by Cork's own Kieran Shannon in the Sunday Tribune, the term 'stopman' is now used openly in dressing rooms to describe these type of derisive tackles. The worst part is that teams will continue to profit from this behaviour, because there appears to be a little enough appetite within the GAA for trying to eradicate continuous contemptuous fouling.

Maybe this is what is required if a side is going to win a Sam Maguire in the 21st Century. More's the pity if it is.

[diehard]

It burns my eyes

[dec]

What a load of shi..

Id say no one could agree with what he wrote..

He should stick to the golf!!

[typo]

smileyniley said:

when reading that rag,you must take into account that the sports editor is well balanced when it comes to kerry as he has a chip on both shoulders.he is none other than diarmuid o donovan who trained the cork minor footballers & was beaten 4 years out of 5 by kerry.
the majority of cork supporters dont even read it as they compare it to the sun.

Just to correct you there smilyniley, sports editor is John McHale. Diarmuid O'Donovan has nothing to do with sports dept of Echo, is involved elsewhere in the paper.

[buck02]

I just wonder where the Echo found the room to print that story what with Mary from Knocknaheeny's dog having a litter of pups, Timmy from Blackpool's 70th birthday party down the local, Maureen from Mayfield having 4 numbers in the lotto plus and Barry from Barrack Street geting charged twice for one plastic bag in Centra.

Maybe Diarmiud O Donovan arranged to have all those Big Echo stories edited out to print the Cynical Kerry bit.

[kerrygold]

i always thought the evening echo was a new brand of toilet role.

[austinstacksabu]

Eh, getting back to the point.....

He's right you know.

We have been fouling the player on the ball far more often than not between midfield and our 40.

We've been at it for the past 3 / 4 years.

No point saying we're not. We are. And it was very noticable in the second half of the game against Cork. Quirke's lazy tackle was a blatant example - foul the player on the ball. Kill the momentum outside of the reach of the free taker. Crowd inside the forty and try to win the 50 / 50 ball going in rather than have a player coming through at pace and opening up the half / full back line, which numerous teams have done to Kerry in the past few years.

We do it . No point saying we don't folks, or bashing a lad for writing an article that, by and large is telling the truth, even if it is in the chipper grease paper.

[kerrygold]

if we have bcome this way its because we have had to respond to whats happening all around us at the cutting edge of top class county football to survive, just like kerry teams have been responding to change for over a hundred years,sometimes it doesnt please the faithfull,micko got plenty of criticism in the 70's from changing from kerrys traditional catch and kick to challenge the heffo's dubs.

mikes challenges were that of a tired man.

[SteelFixer]

kerrygold said:

if we have bcome this way its because we have had to respond to whats happening all around us at the cutting edge of top class county football to survive, just like kerry teams have been responding to change for over a hundred years,sometimes it doesnt please the faithfull,micko got plenty of criticism in the 70's from changing from kerrys traditional catch and kick to challenge the heffo's dubs.

mikes challenges were that of a tired man.

Your spot on there Kerrygold

When I referred to it as a load of nonsense last week, it was'nt the general point of the article I was taking issue with, but more the singling out of Kerry as being the only culprits of this type of behviour. As we all know this type of carry on is commonplace in football nowadays and has been for some time.

Hannigans article kind of implied that this Kerry teams success has been a result of adopting these 'foul' tactics, and that if a team wants to be successful they need to embrace same.

While I would agree that a team would need to be very aware in this regard if they want to be successful, I would still strongly argue that the good footballing team always win out at the end.

The fact that Ourselves, Tyrone and Armagh have dominated the footballing landscape for the last 5 years, backs this contention up. All three teams extremely streetwise, but outstanding footballing teams, head and shoulders above the other counties.

[SteelFixer]

Oh yeah and another thing, the echo seems to be coming in for a lot of undeserved flak on this thread !

While there is a lot of nonsense in the main part of the echo, (like news on the progress of the latest fella to attempt the Barrack Street challenge), their sports coverage is first class and would put a lot of other local papers to shame. Their coverage of local games in Cork is very thorough and some of the Kerry papers could take a leaf out of their book. They have very knowelagable reporters like John Horgan and John Coughlan and several good expert contributers. While it is quite parochial at times, that is to be expected, and our own papers down here are just as partisan. Friday and Monday are best days to get it.

[austinstacksabu]

Talk about going completely 180 on the thread altogether.

From a starting point of - how dare they critique Kerry in that chipper rag - we're now at the point where it has quite a good sports section and Dave Hannigan may not have been wrong in the first place!!

We should send this thread, printed to the Echo.....

[smileyniley]

sorry typo, i got MR O DONOVAN'S title wrong, he is the circulation manager for the echo, but he also has a slot on the sports pages covering baseball,tennis etc & of course he also did an article on how cynical kerry are.
i look forward to his next one.

[martym]

No need to get worked up by Mr Henighan . A lot of of his points are valid but signalling out Kerry while not discussing Corks fouls makes the article unbalanced . The free count was very even in the game . Quirke was clearly tired when he committed his last foul .Kieran O Conner fouled constantly yet no black book after foul 1 or 2 . The munster final was a clean sporting game for the most part . Stacks you mentioned he was in the US is he still there or is he just back ?. Given the voilence in GAA games all over the country he has picked a tame arguement borrowed from Billy Morgan