Advertisement
RTE screengrab
Harte Attack

‘The Nuremburg defence doesn’t apply to Sean Cavanagh,’ says Joe Brolly

The Red Hand talisman needs to take responsibility for his actions, according to the RTE pundit.

JOE BROLLY INSISTS he stands over his tirade against Tyrone’s cynical fouling on RTE television on Saturday evening.

The former Derry forward launched a stunning attack on the Red Hand talisman, Sean Cavanagh as well as Mikey Harte’s tactics after the All-Ireland SFC quarter-final win over Monaghan.

The Farney fell just short after Conor McManus was hauled down by Cavanagh when he looked through on goal in the second half. Both sides ended the game with 14 men on the pitch while Tyrone were lucky not to have more sent off.

“I’ll tell him to his face, you can be sure of that,” Brolly said on Today FM’s Last Word programme yesterday evening when asked if he’d say the same to Cavanagh away from the TV studio.

“People say: would you not say it to his face. I’ve said it in front of a million people. Apparently it’s been shown 300,000 times on YouTube.

“I’ll stand my ground and I’ll say it to him face-to-face, don’t you worry about that. He shouldn’t be doing it and I’ve told him before. I’ve said Sean, stop doing that, it’s awful.”

When asked by presenter Matt Cooper if he went too far in saying ‘you can forget about Sean Cavanagh as a man’, Brolly added: “I mean as a sportsman, I don’t know anything about the fella’s  private life. But you can’t be one thing on the field and one thing off it.

“This is his character, this is what he is. You are what you are. And it’s just unfortunate that he’s a diver and a serial cynical fouler. He’ll freely admit that and say look we’re only exploiting the rules.

“Owen Mulligan said the exact same thing last week, there’s no secret it’s being coached in Tyrone and is used systematically. There’s other teams doing it as well. And it’s spreading through clubs; this is bigger than Tyrone, Mickey Harte and Sean Cavanagh but these are the big guys.

“If I wanted to weasel around this I’d say look Cavan were at it and no one really cares. But I’m picking out the big guys; Mickey Harte and Sean Cavanagh are well capable of defending themselves. Sean Cavanagh has chosen to say ‘I do do it, the pundits are right. It’s very distasteful, I don’t like doing it’.

“That’s not good enough, he’s a  30-year-old man, the Nuremburg defence doesn’t apply. He knows exactly what he’s doing and it’s a matter for him how he chooses to play a sport and I think they way he does it is a disgrace.”

First published 7.10am

Listen to the full interview here>

Aaron Kernan uses the notes app on his iPhone to wade in on Brolly v Cavanagh

Mayo goals cost publican as green and red fans take advantage of promotion

Your Voice
Readers Comments
42
    Submit a report
    Please help us understand how this comment violates our community guidelines.
    Thank you for the feedback
    Your feedback has been sent to our team for review.