Eamon Sweeney Poll

[Lamps]

You're a prick

[KolaKubes]

The stand up Steve Hughes had an interesting point on this during the week which might be relevant.

When CNN goes to their "Middle East expert" and he's some fat, balding white guy from New England.

Wouldn't a real Middle East expert be, you know, from the Middle East.

This sort of cunt is all over the media, they live in Cork for 12 months and suddenly they can explain to Jackeens and bogtrotters "what the problem with Cork people is".

Fuck 'em.

[Annie Hall]

Link, please.

[azfad]

who is he and what has he done?

[Annie Hall]

He's a writer/'journalist' from Sligo living in Cork. I've read two of his novels - 'Waiting for the Healer' and 'The Photograph'. They were only OK.

[azfad]

what does he say thats so controversial?

[Langer Dan]

He's constantly having a go at the hurlers and footballers in his 'column'.

A sad hack who should be shunned by the community.

[The Banker]

Whatever your opinion about the Cork Players Strike you cannot be considered a serious journalist by making a statement that "I have not met one person who supports the strike".
But then the Sunday Indopendent is a rag anyway.

[Brad]

Agreed with most of what he said today. Sean Og seems to have short memory and this was well pointed out by Sweeney. Sean Og was cuddling up to Frank only 6 months ago and now has called for him to resign. I think Sean Og, Cusack,etc. have kind of Keane status in Cork, thereby no matter what they do the public will view them as being in the right.

[BlueSkies]

If we could keep Roy Keane out of this one it might make things a bit easier.

[Brad]

If we could keep Roy Keane out of this one it might make things a bit easier.


True. I was only using Keane to illustrate my point. George O Callaghan is kind of one of those too. An absolute prat yet the public (more so the shed) still love him.

[Langer Dan]

Just read the article there, 'no one hes talked to'?

Who was he chatting to? Frank Murphy and Bob?:)
What a ballbag, how dare he assumt to represent the wishes of the people of cork, if this board is anything to go by then most corkpeople are behind the players.


Incidentally, good piece by Colm O'Rourke in the Sindo, hes the only decent GAA correspondant they have.

[Lamps]

If we could keep Roy Keane out of this one it might make things a bit easier.

Funny you should mention it, but I clocked someone last over a similar comment. Things came to a head when he brought that langer Keane into things, had to take care of business the old fashioned way.

[Brad]

Just read the article there, 'no one hes talked to'?

Who was he chatting to? Frank Murphy and Bob?:)
What a ballbag, how dare he assumt to represent the wishes of the people of cork, if this board is anything to go by then most corkpeople are behind the players.


Incidentally, good piece by Colm O'Rourke in the Sindo, hes the only decent GAA correspondant they have.

Agreed. I am with board myself but i have a feeling most people are behind the players. A ridiculous comment to make saying no one he had spoken to was behind the players.

[Annie Hall]

Funny you should mention it, but I clocked someone last over a similar comment. Things came to a head when he brought that langer Keane into things, had to take care of business the old fashioned way.

Oh Lord, I now fully understand the meaning of your user name...

[the puerto rican feen]

What about Liam Hayes in the Tribune today.

Although, he did identify what Frank Murphy was trying to do.

[Lamps]

What about Liam Hayes in the Tribune today.

Although, he did identify what Frank Murphy was trying to do.

Liam Hayes is a wum and a poor enough one at that.

Dublin to beat Kerry by comfortable 7 to 8 points was one of his better calls last year. He even said Saint Seamus and Maurice Fitz weren't great players

[pudgee]

He's no Tom Humphries

[RonnyB]

Sweeney is a complete toe rag & is the principle reason I refuse to read the sindo anymore. His comment regarding Sean Og having a short memory is a bit rich. Sean Og had every right to thank Frank for his efforts in getting his ban overturned. After all that is Frank's fucking job. Having a major influence in who plays for Cork (which is what he's after IMO) is not.

[Langer Dan]

Liam Hayes is a wum and a poor enough one at that.

Dublin to beat Kerry by comfortable 7 to 8 points was one of his better calls last year. He even said Saint Seamus and Maurice Fitz weren't great players

His article trying to score points off Billy by referencing John Kerins funeral was one of the most despicable pieces Iv ever read, havnt bought the Turbine since.

[Actin The Sham]

Sweeney has the mentality of a retarded frog. Who gives a fuck what he thinks/writes/says on questions & answers?

He's from Sligo anyway, which is a mucksavage spudgobbling neanderthal knuckledragging settlement in the arse end of nowhere, about the same size as Midleton; ergo, it doesn't matter a fuck.

I can't believe that we are even discussing this, we should start a pondlife thread which would be more entertaining.

[Lamps]

Sweeney has the mentality of a retarded frog. Who gives a fuck what he thinks/writes/says on questions & answers?

He's from Sligo anyway, which is a mucksavage spudgobbling neanderthal knuckledragging settlement in the arse end of nowhere, about the same size as Midleton; ergo, it doesn't matter a fuck.

I can't believe that we are even discussing this, we should start a pondlife thread which would be more entertaining.

I disagree, he's been getting away with this for a while, and all under the guise of being a man on the inside as regards understanding the corkman.

If Dave Hannigan is reading this maybe he could point out a few of the pricks flaws to wider audience.

[Poc Fada]

What ye were all doing buying the Sunday Independent in the first place is what I want to know! Are they still running the pathetic blondy journo babes columns btw?

[Rebelred]

http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaa-championships/hurling/hype-comes-before-the-fall-1457559.html

He has waited years to write this particular piece, years...

Hype comes before the fall

The Cork hurling and Armagh football teams, whose eras appeared to come to an end last weekend in Croke Park, had a lot in common. They were very talented sides who brought a huge sense of occasion to their big fixtures. They polarised public opinion and were tireless self-mythologisers. And, in the final analysis, they underachieved and fell short of the greatness which once seemed theirs for the taking.

It is no mean achievement to be among the best teams of your time but both Cork and Armagh had ambitions beyond that. They wished to be remembered as the outstanding teams of their era and it is now unarguable that this distinction will fall to Kilkenny hurlers and Kerry footballers, no matter what transpires over the next few weeks. The figures speak for themselves, Kilkenny's four All-Irelands to Cork's two, Kerry's quartet against Armagh's single day in the sun.

You could explain this simply by noting that Kilkenny and Kerry had better players than Cork and Armagh. Yet Cork and Armagh contributed to their own downfall by mistaking their greatest vice for their greatest virtue. This was what held them back from making that final jump to greatness.

Greek tragedy is so powerful because the victims are not bad people. They are very good people who are undone by one fatal flaw. This flaw is often connected with hubris, an exaggerated pride in one's achievements and character. Hubris worked its spell against Cork and Armagh and meant that, in the final analysis, there was something tragic about the way they never became the teams for the ages they wished to be.

Both sides were emblematic of the era in which they played, coming in as that era reached its apogee and fading out as it reached its end. Their self-belief, their brashness and above all their willingness to collude with the hype which surrounded them marked them out as emblematic of the Tiger years, a time when modesty was seen as a worthless shibboleth from an unenlightened past which deserved to go the same way as superstition and sexual repression. They often walked the walk but they always talked the talk.

In the beginning, this indicated a salutary openness and honesty, echoing the words of Christy Ring that "modesty isn't saying you're no good when you know you are. It's knowing how good you are." But eventually it evolved into a somewhat unpleasant machismo in the case of Armagh and into a strange combination of boastfulness and paranoia in Cork's case.

The players, who we should remember were mainly young men in their 20s, were not entirely to blame for this. The media, enjoying the experience of teams who seemed to bask in the spotlight to the same extent that their predecessors had been wary of it, built both teams up far beyond the level of their achievements. I recall reading an article which wondered if Armagh, the winners of a single All-Ireland, might be the equivalent of Mick O'Dwyer's Kerry team which had won eight. And when Cork scraped a narrow win against a terminally flakey Galway team a few weeks back, we were greeted by media suggestions that this was the finest team to ever come from the Rebel County, something which necessitated the denigration of the 1976-1978 three-in-a-row team and complete ignorance of the 1952-1954 side of Ring, Lynch, Daly, Barry et al.

Perhaps the most egregious example of this trend came last week when it was suggested ad nauseam that Sunday's semi-final would finally decide whether Kilkenny or Cork were the outstanding team of modern times. With Kilkenny's four All-Irelands outweighing Cork's two -- it's 5-3 if you want to go back to 1999 and 2000 --this was a bit like a kid trailing by a couple of goals in a playground kickabout suggesting that the next goal wins. In the end, Kilkenny made the argument redundant but it's still remarkable to think that had the Rebels come through last weekend Brian Cody's men would now be derided in many quarters as the Ryan Lochtes to Cork's Michael Phelps.

There was a huge amount of excitement about the epic nature of Cork's victories against Galway and Clare in this year's championship, something which ignored the fact that Kilkenny would probably have beaten the pick of those teams by double figures. Those who like seeing games as Hemingway-style struggles of redemption and moral courage enjoyed the way Cork struggled through so many close games. Kilkenny, like the Tipperary team of 1961-1965, are perhaps just too good for their own good. But if the media are largely to blame for the over-rating of Cork vis-a-vis Kilkenny, the Rebels are not entirely blameless. When the Cats, in 2003, became the first team in a decade to win two All-Irelands in-a-row, the suggestion was that the real story was the throwing away of victory by Cork. Donal O'Grady harped on about Cork being delayed by an official on their way out to the pitch with the clear implication that this had somehow cost his team victory. There were dark mutterings about Kilkenny's tackling in defence and a hurl thrown by an official in the second half. To which we might profitably contrast Kilkenny's dignified silence about Tom Kenny's cheap attack on Cha Fitzpatrick.

It's remarkable too that in Brian Corcoran's autobiography, Cork's 2006 All-Ireland semi-final victory over Waterford is dealt with at length while their subsequent final loss to Kilkenny is quickly dismissed as just one of those things. That this notion had gained popular currency was suggested by Cork players outnumbering those of the All-Ireland champions in the GPA's 2006 team of the year. Last year there were intimations that Cork might have gone all the way had they not been upset by the suspensions following the fracas against Clare. Cork, or perhaps more accurately their camp followers, have never given Kilkenny the necessary respect. Expect to hear soon that Gerald McCarthy's managerial shortcomings are what held back the Rebels this year.

The irony is that this hubris harmed Kilkenny not one iota and Cork a great deal indeed. The insistence that every defeat could be explained by extra-curricular factors and that the team remained primus inter pares stunted Cork's development. Because, if there was nothing wrong, nothing needed to be put right. While Brian Cody chopped, changed and fine-tuned to keep Kilkenny fresh, the Cork team became set in stone and some players were allowed to go on for too long. The very group solidarity which Cork prided themselves on became the thing which may have cost them the third All-Ireland they craved.

A similar thing happened to Armagh who became convinced that they had won their first All-Ireland thanks to swarm defence, physical strength and negativity. In fact, the triumph of 2002 owed a great deal to the best set of forwards in the game at the time. Steven McDonnell, Ronan Clarke and Oisín McConville will go down as all-time greats, while John McEntee and Diarmuid Marsden were also terrific players. Only Kieran McGeeney in the backs was of the same stature. Yet Armagh dwelt more and more on stopping the other team than on setting their forwards free. Had they gone the adventurous route, two, maybe three All-Irelands might have been theirs.

Instead, they never fulfilled their potential. Last Saturday was the ultimate demonstration of what negativity had cost them as they defended in depth and handed the initiative to a Wexford team who might have been crushed had Clarke and McDonnell been supported properly up front.

It's the things we love that kill us. So it was with Cork and Armagh. That's the tragedy of it.

[wayne gayle]

This wanker is really pushing his luck with us now. Has he got a death wish or something?He lives in west Cork btw.

[BlueSkies]

He is a sickening cunt.

[Hawkeye Bill]

It's the selective, anecdotal logic of a fascist. To pick him up on one issue from his article, why Cork were not awarded the 2003 All-Ireland, (i) Alan Browne score (like Gerrys last weekend) that was flagged wide incorrectly in first half, (ii) 2 penalties (one on Deane, one on Setanta) not awarded in second half, (iii) Kilkenny savages neither penalised nor booked for wilful clothes-lining of Cork players in first 15 minutes of game (2 on Gardner, 1 on Curran). The reason we're paranoid is because the refs are all anti-Cork, just like the League of Ireland. Except for Dickie Murphy, whos grand. Fair play to Dickie.

[ho chi feen]

Seriously... did his wife run off with a Cork man, or something? Or did he once have seven shades of shit thumped out of him by a Cork hurler?

Nobody can be that bitter and twisted without good reason- takes too much energy.

Unless he's the GAA's answer to Kevin Myers.

[RonnyB]

He's the reason I stopped purchasing that particular paper.

[KolaKubes]

It's the selective, anecdotal logic of a fascist. To pick him up on one issue from his article, why Cork were not awarded the 2003 All-Ireland, (i) Alan Browne score (like Gerrys last weekend) that was flagged wide incorrectly in first half, (ii) 2 penalties (one on Deane, one on Setanta) not awarded in second half, (iii) Kilkenny savages neither penalised nor booked for wilful clothes-lining of Cork players in first 15 minutes of game (2 on Gardner, 1 on Curran). The reason we're paranoid is because the refs are all anti-Cork, just like the League of Ireland. Except for Dickie Murphy, whos grand. Fair play to Dickie.

Watching the match y'day, if the same criteria for what constituted a foul and a yellow card had been implemented in our semi, it would have finished with about 14 Cork fellas on the field and 12 Cats and we'd have won the game without scoring from play.

The GAA need to fucking wise up.

There's teams going out with plans for systematic, cynical fouling. I've heard more than one saying Cork need to come back next year and basically seek to clean out KK physically.

That's not how I'd like to see us respond but in the absence of the GAA listening to the timid murmurings about KK's "physicality" and the not so timid comment from O'Grady and Loughnane, what other option is there.

Credit to their hurling ability, none to their "physicality".

And Sweeney is a prick. End of.

[Rebelred]

Watching the match y'day, if the same criteria for what constituted a foul and a yellow card had been implemented in our semi, it would have finished with about 14 Cork fellas on the field and 12 Cats and we'd have won the game without scoring from play.

The GAA need to fucking wise up.

There's teams going out with plans for systematic, cynical fouling. I've heard more than one saying Cork need to come back next year and basically seek to clean out KK physically.

That's not how I'd like to see us respond but in the absence of the GAA listening to the timid murmurings about KK's "physicality" and the not so timid comment from O'Grady and Loughnane, what other option is there.

Credit to their hurling ability, none to their "physicality".

And Sweeney is a prick. End of.

The choice of Referee for the final is going to be crucial!

[BlackAvon08]

Who gives a dam what a guy like Eamonn Sweeney writes?

We know how great this group of Cork hurlers were.

We appreciate the fantastic entertainment & great days out they have given us.

We acknowledge the sacrifices & commitment the players give to Cork hurling.

We know our hurlers stood up for the good of Cork hurling

We know that there is potential for great things to come.

We welcome all comers to Cork including our Sligo brethren and hope they understand & appreciate the joys of living in Cork. Let’s not be too hard on Sweeney – rather have pity on him for his idiocy.

[Langer Dan]

http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaa-championships/hurling/hype-comes-before-the-fall-1457559.html

He has waited years to write this particular piece, years...

Hype comes before the fall

.

what a fucking wanker.

Stupid hack, I e-mailed him round the time of the player strike, calling him on his disgraceful piece in the shitrag that is the Independant. He had f**k all to say for himself.

A mean spirited, talentless turd of a man.

[smellycat1]

Good Article.

[legend76]

Good Article.

:rolleyes:

[Langer Dan]

Good Article.

Fuck off WUM.

[wayne gayle]

what a fucking wanker.

Stupid hack, I e-mailed him round the time of the player strike, calling him on his disgraceful piece in the shitrag that is the Independant. He had f**k all to say for himself.

A mean spirited, talentless turd of a man.

Is that his email at the end of that link in that article? If it is then I say we should get as many people as possible to email this prick and let him know exactly how we feel.

[Langer Dan]

Is that his email at the end of that link in that article? If it is then I say we should get as many people as possible to email this prick and let him know exactly how we feel.

Wouldn't be bothered, that baldy pr**k only thrives on the reaction.
Best to vote with your wallet and don't buy his rag.

Only fit for lighting the fire.

[BlueSkies]

Watching the match y'day, if the same criteria for what constituted a foul and a yellow card had been implemented in our semi, it would have finished with about 14 Cork fellas on the field and 12 Cats and we'd have won the game without scoring from play.

The GAA need to fucking wise up.

There's teams going out with plans for systematic, cynical fouling. I've heard more than one saying Cork need to come back next year and basically seek to clean out KK physically.

That's not how I'd like to see us respond but in the absence of the GAA listening to the timid murmurings about KK's "physicality" and the not so timid comment from O'Grady and Loughnane, what other option is there.

Credit to their hurling ability, none to their "physicality".

And Sweeney is a prick. End of.

Good point Kola. I'd hate to see hurling go down the route of Northern football in terms of tackling. All this half-fouling and holding of the hurley that Kilkenny do needs to be stamped out by stricter refereeing.
It's a very cynical way of playing, knowing that the referee will be crucified if he doesn't let the game flow as much as possible.
Having said that, they are fantastic hurlers as well.

[RonnyB]

It's the selective, anecdotal logic of a fascist. To pick him up on one issue from his article, why Cork were not awarded the 2003 All-Ireland, (i) Alan Browne score (like Gerrys last weekend) that was flagged wide incorrectly in first half, (ii) 2 penalties (one on Deane, one on Setanta) not awarded in second half, (iii) Kilkenny savages neither penalised nor booked for wilful clothes-lining of Cork players in first 15 minutes of game (2 on Gardner, 1 on Curran). The reason we're paranoid is because the refs are all anti-Cork, just like the League of Ireland. Except for Dickie Murphy, whos grand. Fair play to Dickie.

My biggest gripe with referee decisions in recent years is the lying down on the ball. Donal Og got punished rather harshly for it last year against Waterford but early in the secong half 1 of the Waterford backs did the same thing on his own 20 & got away with it. Also KK perfected it during the '06 final.

I admire KK for what they've achieved but their I wouldnt rush out to watch them ahead of any of the teams in Munster. They have some excellent players but the close games that they're involved in arent of the same standard like a Tipp/Waterford game would be for instance. Examples of this would be the 3 AI Finals against Cork. 2 of those games were won by 3 points but you'd hardly call them classics.

[Lamps]

Bump.


Seems Sweeney has finally cracked. Nice work lads.

http://patrishka.files.word press.com/2008/07/trailer_park_boys_.j pg?w=450

[Youghal Exile]

Cork 36 hurling and football all irelands Sligo 0.Go suck on that Eamon.:lol:

[TOMÁS]

You're a prick

Why don't you tell him what you really think?
And by the way - what a dumb signature you have.
Pretty, pretty insecure.

[Liathroidi Mor]

I for one won't be purchasing the Sindo again unless we get an apology from the editor regarding that pricks article today in the sports section.

[STEVIEG]

can someone link the article couldn't find it in hurling thread?

Shit paper anyway never buy it

[STEVIEG]

Think i found it the Mossie Langer one?

[Liathroidi Mor]

ya thats the one. prick!!! however Conlon on the couch beneath it has an excellent article , very balanced

[STEVIEG]

It was Mossie wot won it?

What kinda of wank is that


he is defo reading this site too


Hi Eamon


Must try harder

[raZor]

Who takes the opinion of a guy with a face that makes it look like he's eating his own chin seriously!

[BlueSkies]

http://www.obrien.ie/authors/EamonnSweeney.jpg

Heh heh heh

[Liathroidi Mor]

Looks like a window licker!!!

[Mick Lyons]

http://www.obrien.ie/authors/EamonnSweeney.jpg

Heh heh heh

He does look uncannily like Bubbles. :D

[Rebelred]

He does look uncannily like Bubbles. :D
Careful now Mick (if that even is your real name ;) ), Eamon doesn't like anonymous abuse

"I like to go on those sites where you can get across a lot of anonymous abuse. Peoples Republic of Cork. PRC"

[mr m]

Fuck Sweeny. He is to sport as Barry Egan is to Journalism. 2 bit hack that excels in bitterness and who's attempt at satire is like watching your demented uncle singing 'sweet Caroline'at a wedding, out of it on porter, and not a not in his stupid fucking head. I'm almost embarrassed for the gimp.

I've despised that man since his character assassination of Brian Corocran after the release of his book. The man has no class.


The fact is, in all the broadsheets today, the ccb and ger mac got absolutely destroyed. It says a lot that you have to buy a Dublin paper to get proper journalistic reports on a Cork problem. The examiner, has been a disgrace, apart from moynihan.

What happened with Diarmuid O’Flynn? Very strange how he has become so quite after being one of the few journalists with his finger on the heartbeat of this whole crisis right from the very start. Seems very dodgy to me.

Sweenys bitterness runs far deeper that his Sligo roots. He is one seriously fucking, ugly man.

Ha ha, take that you absolute munter Sweeny. Big , toothless, ,simpleton potato head up on ya.

[Youghal Exile]

Guys like Mossie Langer take no shit because they've got 3rd level education bits of paper from cork it.Groves of academe.Hallowed halls of learning.

How dare that bald headed,knacker loving sligo cunt mock CITs credentials.Your not from Cork Eamonn deal with it.

[Jukka]

In fairness, there were some points in that article that should make some cork fans look at themselves a bit. Was looking on here for a good bit and some of the crap i saw put up about Gearld was a disgrace. Alot of what went on during the whole thing made me ashamed of my country to be honest.

Its a pity the article was writen by a tit. His dig at CIT was a total disgrace. Noticable that he doesn't do interviews anymore - nobody will talk to him!

[ANVIL]

http://www.obrien.ie/authors/EamonnSweeney.jpg

Heh heh heh

He's got a face like the inside of a boxing glove and I'm sure he was driving a mini-cab in the City the other night.

[Youghal Exile]

He's got a face like the inside of a boxing glove and I'm sure he was driving a mini-cab in the City the other night.

I can understand when outsiders slag off cork although i find it infuriating when cork people themselves(the type who think galway is just fantastic) run down cork.Fair play on that thread you did a few weeks ago and will those cork born cork begrudgers please stop pretending Cork isnt a great city.

[Mr Jefferson]

Fuck Sweeny. He is to sport as Barry Egan is to Journalism. 2 bit hack that excels in bitterness and who's attempt at satire is like watching your demented uncle singing 'sweet Caroline'at a wedding, out of it on porter, and not a not in his stupid fucking head. I'm almost embarrassed for the gimp.

I've despised that man since his character assassination of Brian Corocran after the release of his book. The man has no class.


The fact is, in all the broadsheets today, the ccb and ger mac got absolutely destroyed. It says a lot that you have to buy a Dublin paper to get proper journalistic reports on a Cork problem. The examiner, has been a disgrace, apart from moynihan.

What happened with Diarmuid O’Flynn? Very strange how he has become so quite after being one of the few journalists with his finger on the heartbeat of this whole crisis right from the very start. Seems very dodgy to me.

Sweenys bitterness runs far deeper that his Sligo roots. He is one seriously fucking, ugly man.

Ha ha, take that you absolute munter Sweeny. Big , toothless, ,simpleton potato head up on ya.

Last I saw he was reporting in the 6 nations! I don't know if thats a promotion or a demotion.

I for one won't be purchasing the Sindo again unless we get an apology from the editor regarding that pricks article today in the sports section.

I dunno. When someone is clearly that rattled, you sit there waiting, in almost giddy anticipation for the next installment. Himself and GMC should team up and write a book together. They could call it Tir na Ogs!

[never]

Sweeney lives in West Cork!

[rebelrebel]

Hi Eamonn,

Try reading an article by a knowledgeable sports writer sometime, like Tom Humphries or Kieran Shannon.... cos knowledable isn't a word that would be used to describe you, you jealous prick!!

Regards & fuck you

RebelRebel

[never]

Be careful what you say rebel rebel.

[never]

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Eamonn Sweeney
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Eamonn Sweeney was born in 1968 in the nearly hurling-free county of Sligo, a deficiency remedied by his hurling-mad father from Kilkenny. He has written on sports for the Irish Examiner for a number of years, and is the author of two novels, The Photograph and Waiting for the Healer, a book on soccer, There's Only One Red Army, and a play, Bruen's Twis. Eamonn now lives in County Cork and regularly broadcasts on RTÉ radio and television on a wide variety of topics. Sport, however, remains his first love.


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[kevo2009]

Let's hunt and kill the Sunday Indo..........

[Langer Dan]

Eamo on behalf of the people of Cork, you sir are a massive twat.

[Youghal Exile]

Eamo on behalf of the people of Cork, you sir are a massive twat.

Cork 36 All Irelands in Hurling and Football Sligo 0.

[Youghal Exile]

Hi Eamonn,

Try reading an article by a knowledgeable sports writer sometime, like Tom Humphries or Kieran Shannon.... cos knowledable isn't a word that would be used to describe you, you jealous prick!!

Regards & fuck you

RebelRebel


:lol::lol::lol::lol:

[vanderburke]

I remember the article he wrote after AI final in 2006..

saw copy lying around on train and read his shite slagging off Cork players about their dedication to hurling..

an absolute toss-pot...no wonder no-body reads Indo in Cork...its a sleaze tabloid trying to pass itself off as a quality paper

[Youghal Exile]

I remember the article he wrote after AI final in 2006..

saw copy lying around on train and read his shite slagging off Cork players about their dedication to hurling..

an absolute toss-pot...no wonder no-body reads Indo in Cork...its a sleaze tabloid trying to pass itself off as a quality paper

What a dick.

[vanderburke]

I think the only way the indo gets into Cork is because its given out as a free paper on Aer Arann flights!!!

cheaper than bog-roll in these recessionary times...also good for this purpose is Mick O Dwyer ghost-written by the other Indo 'journalist' breheny...
At 50 cent in Easons its much cheaper than Aldi bog roll

Back to the Pale from whence it came!

[Youghal Exile]

I think the only way the indo gets into Cork is because its given out as a free paper on Aer Arann flights!!!

cheaper than bog-roll in these recessionary times...also good for this purpose is Mick O Dwyer ghost-written by the other Indo 'journalist' breheny...
At 50 cent in Easons its much cheaper than Aldi bog roll

Back to the Pale from whence it came!

Nicely put.

[mightyquark]

I think the only way the indo gets into Cork is because its given out as a free paper on Aer Arann flights!!!

cheaper than bog-roll in these recessionary times...also good for this purpose is Mick O Dwyer ghost-written by the other Indo 'journalist' breheny...
At 50 cent in Easons its much cheaper than Aldi bog roll

Back to the Pale from whence it came!

Mick O Dwyer is a legend that the GAA dont deserve.Cant believe that he has a column for the Independent.

[vanderburke]

Mick O Dwyer is a legend that the GAA dont deserve.Cant believe that he has a column for the Independent.

His autobiography is poor enough fare tbh..breheny wouldnt be a much use either in helping to write one..classic Middle Ireland man..easily outraged at the thought of anyone putting their head above the GAA-officialdom parapet

[mightyquark]

His autobiography is poor enough fare tbh..breheny wouldnt be a much use either in helping to write one..classic Middle Ireland man..easily outraged at the thought of anyone putting their head above the GAA-officialdom parapet

Some great radio interviews with him recently..any book that is written should be done in the type of language he speaks...A top man and gr8 eye for the young ladies.

[Youghal Exile]

Guys like Mossie Langer take no shit because they've got 3rd level education bits of paper from cork it.Groves of academe.Hallowed halls of learning.

How dare that bald headed,knacker loving sligo cunt mock CITs credentials.Your not from Cork Eamonn deal with it.

Sorry for bumping this but what college did you go to Eamonn you bitter,bald,sligo cunt?

[Langer Dan]

Poor Eamon.

It's not easy being a spudheaded freak.

:(

[BlueSkies]

Mick O Dwyer is a legend that the GAA dont deserve.Cant believe that he has a column for the Independent.

*sigh* I know I shouldn't but ...
WTF is that supposed to mean?

[Langer Dan]

http://healthychow.com/content/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/Matt_Damon_GWH.jpg

[vanderburke]

Eamonn has written a 3rd rate article in yesterdays sindo on not supporting Eng-ger-land at the WC this year...

Its a blatent and shoddy rip-off of a far superior one written by Tom Humphreys years ago...he should be ashamed of himself

[TonyCork80]

Eamon has the makings of a great piece about diving in this mornings paper, but he bottles it big time by not mentioning Colm Cooper.

Instead we get some limp wristed spiel about litigation and a half baked defence of aidan O'Mahony

The next time the Sindo question the bottle of our players they should be reminded of this.

[3pointplay]

Until the Cork team win some thing of merit then their bottle will always be in question.

[Corcaigh32]

National leagues and Munsters obviously don't merit no? Our day is coming - thing is now we will be like Kerry with Tyrone, we can win 6 AIs on the trot now but the one against Kerry will be the one that matters.

[3pointplay]

National leagues and Munsters obviously don't merit no? Our day is coming - thing is now we will be like Kerry with Tyrone, we can win 6 AIs on the trot now but the one against Kerry will be the one that matters.

Meh, The All Ireland is the only one that matters every one knows that.

[Corcaigh32]

That it's all that matters - no argument. But national leagues are highly meritoriuos.

[3pointplay]

That it's all that matters - no argument. But national leagues are highly meritoriuos.

No no, You are now supposed to hurl abuse at me and call me every name under the sun.:p

Now time to get the Cork jersey on.;)

[TonyCork80]

Bullseye from Sweeney this morning.

http://www.independent.ie/sport/gaelic-football/on-the-brink-of-devastation-2439290.html

[stevetharlear]

Good article Moccork, fair play.

[Mick Lyons]

Spot on.

[Mr Jefferson]

Yes. As much as I despise his journalism in general, he struck a chord with me on this one.

[jams]

http://www.independent.ie/sport/other-sports/games-up-for-surplus-hacks-2480934.html

I 'm afraid I won't be around here for much longer. Thanks a million, Robbie Allen of Durham, North Carolina.

Robbie, a curse be upon him, is an American boffin who has devised a piece of computer software which writes sports reports, a mechanical journo already advanced enough to write the copy for 345 college basketball websites.

If there's one thing the last century has taught us, it is that whatever happens in America today, whether it's rock'n'roll, Twitter, McDonalds or shrieking 'oh my God' like a panicky drag queen, will happen here tomorrow. Or at least the day after that.

So it appears inevitable that within a few years Robbie's RoboWriter, or its successors will have rendered the likes of me superfluous to requirements. Sports journalists will be unceremoniously deposited in the dole queue where, given their lack of transferable skills, they will languish for the remainder of their lives.

There's only one course for a sensible man to follow when faced with inevitable defeat. Treachery. So, if you're listening Robbie, I hereby declare my intention to join the winning side. As proof of my good faith, I'm including the necessary information, all those appropriate clichés and gobbets of conventional wisdom, you'll need to programme an Irish sports reporting gizmo.

1 A team which wins the All-Ireland has been destined to win it from the start of the season and has done everything right along the way. Its success is based around an incident which happened in either (a) a training session in January or (b) a National League game in March.

2 Any incidence of bad sportsmanship, sexual licentiousness or financial cupidity on the part of a soccer player should always be compared unfavourably to the saint-like behaviour of Gaelic footballers and hurlers. It should be stressed that these highly paid professionals could 'learn a lesson or two from their amateur brethren'.

3 An attempt by Wayne Rooney to decapitate an opponent or bite the ref on the face should elicit the observation that 'if you take that part out of his game, you take away something important from him as a player'.

4 If a referee makes a mistake in a big GAA match, suggest that Pat McEnaney should have been in charge of the game because he is 'the best referee in Ireland' and 'adopts a common-sense approach'. If Pat McEnaney makes a mistake in a big GAA match, say that 'he fell slightly below his own high standards,' even if this is the third game in a row where this has happened.

5 After any loss, draw or unimpressive victory by the Irish soccer team, observe that 'John Delaney has questions to answer,' even though he wasn't playing or managing the team.

6 If Alex Ferguson is ranting and raving and slagging off the opposition and the referee, he is playing 'mind games,' as part of a cunning master plan. If Arsene Wenger is ranting and raving and slagging off the opposition and the referee, he has 'lost the plot' and proved that he is a whiny foreigner who will never win anything.

7 Even though Tyrone and Armagh have won it every year since 1999, the Ulster football championship is wide open and every team in the province has a chance of winning it even though Cavan was in Ulster last time I checked.

8 A player who is out injured is a TALISMAN.

9 An ineffective lightweight sparrow fart of a wing-forward who always gets subbed in the second half is MERCURIAL.

10 All Munster rugby players are hard-nosed, horny-handed members of the proletariat, eg Ronan O'Gara and David Wallace. All Leinster players are effete wine-sipping middle-class Hugh Grant lookalikes, eg Jamie Heaslip and Sean O'Brien.

11 A petulant wanker with a chip on his shoulder should always be described as a MUCH MISUNDERSTOOD FIGURE.

12 A petulant wanker with a chip on his shoulder and a third level education should always be described as a COMPLEX CHARACTER.

13 A player who keeps getting selected on his reputation even though he hasn't played well in years is a team's SPIRITUAL LEADER.

14 Roy Keane is a driven man and what he has to say about Saipan remains of great interest to everybody. If we'd listened to him back then, we'd probably have won the 2002 World Cup.

15 If Cork hurlers win a game, mention the fact that they are spurred on by the solidarity engendered during the players' strike. If they lose, say that these players owe Cork nothing.

16 It's always a poor football championship if Kerry don't win it.

17 Soccer has been ruined by theatrical diving continentals, a category which includes South Americans. English players never dive. Yes RoboWriter, Michael Owen is English. If an English team play a continental team in European football, the English team do not play-act or dive even if most of the players, and their manager, are continental.

18 Asian players are only there for the purpose of shirt sales.

19 Manly physical contact has been rooted out of soccer by fussy referees. Things were much better when savages like Ron Harris, Tommy Smith and Peter Storey could tackle George Best from behind and try to cripple him. That Nigel de Jong is a disgrace by the way.

20 A '70s sportsman who got his leg over with many different women was a 'playboy' or 'the kind of character we don't have in these politically correct times'. A contemporary sportsman who behaves in the same way is a 'disgraceful role model to young people' whose morals have been corroded by having too much money.

21 A brawl in a soccer match is 'soccer's shame,' a brawl in a rugby match is 'a bit of sorting out,' a brawl in a GAA match is 'sickening scenes' if it happens in an obscure club game and 'handbags' if it happens in Croke Park.

22 There are too many referees from obscure countries with little footballing pedigree in the World Cup. There should be more refs from the Premier League who would shine like Graham Poll did in 2006 and Howard Webb did in this year's World Cup final.

23 The death of anyone puts sport 'into perspective'.

24 Managers are far too sporting to complain about decisions just because they've gone against their own team. All they want is 'a bit of consistency.'

25 Everyone in Ireland is filled with delight when some millionaire's horse wins in Cheltenham.

26 Most Irish racehorses are owned by 'The Ordinary Joe Soap'.

27 Ted Walsh is as wise as Buddha and as funny as Richard Pryor. He is a 'national treasure'.

28 And so is Micheál ó Muircheartaigh. Use the one about the Rabbitte and the Fox in Croke Park. No one has ever heard it before. People turn the television off and plug themselves into the radio to listen to Micheál's commentaries.

29 The Railway Cup is in decline. Once upon a time many people went to see it. Packie McGarty of Leitrim. Iggy Jones of Armagh. It remains very important to the players.

30 Bertie Ahern is a fanatical fan of the Dubs. How else can you explain his willingness to make the long trek from Drumcondra to Croke Park at least three or four times a year?

31 Americans have no interest in sports other than their own ones, games like basketball, which nobody else in the world plays. A survey showed that, even though there are more registered soccer players in the US than anywhere else in the world, the game is less popular there than a man putting a pig in a hole in Tennessee.

32 A player who has been rubbish all year and keeps getting picked is BELIEVED TO BE FLYING IN TRAINING.

33 A player who has been rubbish for a couple of years and keeps getting picked GETS THROUGH A LOT OF UNSEEN WORK.

34 Paul Galvin HOOVERS UP AN AMOUNT OF DIRTY BALL.

35 Kilkenny's training games are more competitive than any match the team plays against other opposition. Except perhaps the 2010 hurling final.

36 2-0 is the most dangerous lead in football. Which should mean that a team should be delighted to get pegged back to 2-1, but doesn't somehow.

37 Inter-county players HAVE PUT THEIR LIVES ON HOLD. They have made more sacrifices than an Aztec priest.

38 A player being interviewed should always 'gaze across' at the immediate vicinity, giving you the chance to indulge in a bit of fancy geographical description.

39 Features should conclude with a short ominous sentence. 'He does now.' 'It is his.' 'A man alone,' 'Love me tender,' 'Stairway to Heaven,' something like that.

40 A player who should have been picked in the first place and proves this when he comes on is an IMPACT SUB.

41 Players do not mind being criticised at all. It is the impact on their families which worries them.

42 The first International Rules test always 'casts doubt over the future of the series'. The second 'answers the doubters'.

43 A player with more than three All-Stars is 'THE GREAT MAN'.

44 There's a special magic about the FA Cup. That's why most of the Premier League's top players vanish from their teams during the competition.

45 The GAA needs Dublin to win an All-Ireland, thus preventing young people in the capital from taking up heroin or, even worse, soccer.

46 Black players on the South African rugby team owe their places to 'political correctness,' a phenomenon most rugby commentators find infinitely more disturbing than they did apartheid.

47 Donegal are over-indulging in the short passing game.

48 The African teams in the World Cup are 'defensively naive'.

49 RTE's soccer coverage is the best in the world, no one else was insightful enough to notice that Cristiano Ronaldo is a fraud who can't play football.

50 He gazed across the desk at his computer in a macho fashion. A man under threat. Determined to keep his job. West Cork, fields and the sea and cattle and men named Finbarr playing road bowls while eating farmhouse cheese made by German hippies. Would he survive? He would see. Born To Run. Blonde on Blonde.

[Langer Dan]

What a whinging bollocks, couldnt resist another dig at the hurlers.

Poor baldy, potato head.

[Youghal Exile]

Eamonn Cork 37 Sligo 0,Nothing,Nada.:)

[CORKBHOY]

Good piece by Eamonn today:


Soccer laid low by sickening culture

Sunday January 08 2012
Your mother is a whore. Your wife takes it up the arse. You're a cunt with HIV.

Come on, where's your sense of humour? These comments are hilarious. Lighten up and get into the spirit of things.

Okay then, maybe they're not that hilarious. They're the kind of things one human being should be ashamed to say to another.

Yet they were chanted by thousands of soccer fans at, respectively, Emanuel Adebayor, David Beckham and Sol Campbell. No action was taken against these supporters or their clubs. In fact, Spurs eagerly pointed out to UEFA that their supporters' Adebayor chants, directed against the striker when he played for Real Madrid, "weren't racist." That's tickety boo then. Nothing wrong with calling someone's mother a whore as long as you don't mention her skin colour.

Last week there were claims that Doncaster Rovers striker Billy Sharp was taunted about the death of his new-born son by Barnsley fans. You could claim that this represents a new low for the game. But then you'd have to overlook the incident back in 2007 when Shamrock Rovers fans jeered Drogheda United's Simon Webb about the death of his wife.

Abusive chants aren't just tolerated within soccer, they're gleefully reproduced on the web and in certain newspapers which seem to regard them as witty banter which is part and parcel of the game. But though I've stood on many a terrace in my time, I still find it difficult to understand the mentality of people who come out with this kind of stuff. Who sneers at a dead wife or child? You'd need to create a new category of bollocks for someone like that.

When journalists refer to the 'sick culture' of professional soccer, they tend to be referring to the unforgivable tendency of the young men who play the game to earn large amounts of money, drink unwise amounts of beer and sleep with many attractive young women. But the real sickness is not on the pitch but in the stands where a horde of spoilt brats think the price of the ticket entitles them to roar the kind of abuse which would probably earn them a beating if they said it to a player's face.

Arguing that players are paid enough money to put up with this simply exposes the jealousy at the heart of the whole ignoble enterprise.

Why does The Beautiful Game have the ugliest fans?

- Eamonn Sweeney
http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/premier-league/soccer-laid-low-by-sickening-culture-2982531.html

[down da Castle]

Good piece by Eamonn today:


Soccer laid low by sickening culture

Sunday January 08 2012
Your mother is a whore. Your wife takes it up the arse. You're a cunt with HIV.

Come on, where's your sense of humour? These comments are hilarious. Lighten up and get into the spirit of things.

Okay then, maybe they're not that hilarious. They're the kind of things one human being should be ashamed to say to another.

Yet they were chanted by thousands of soccer fans at, respectively, Emanuel Adebayor, David Beckham and Sol Campbell. No action was taken against these supporters or their clubs. In fact, Spurs eagerly pointed out to UEFA that their supporters' Adebayor chants, directed against the striker when he played for Real Madrid, "weren't racist." That's tickety boo then. Nothing wrong with calling someone's mother a whore as long as you don't mention her skin colour.

Last week there were claims that Doncaster Rovers striker Billy Sharp was taunted about the death of his new-born son by Barnsley fans. You could claim that this represents a new low for the game. But then you'd have to overlook the incident back in 2007 when Shamrock Rovers fans jeered Drogheda United's Simon Webb about the death of his wife.

Abusive chants aren't just tolerated within soccer, they're gleefully reproduced on the web and in certain newspapers which seem to regard them as witty banter which is part and parcel of the game. But though I've stood on many a terrace in my time, I still find it difficult to understand the mentality of people who come out with this kind of stuff. Who sneers at a dead wife or child? You'd need to create a new category of bollocks for someone like that.

When journalists refer to the 'sick culture' of professional soccer, they tend to be referring to the unforgivable tendency of the young men who play the game to earn large amounts of money, drink unwise amounts of beer and sleep with many attractive young women. But the real sickness is not on the pitch but in the stands where a horde of spoilt brats think the price of the ticket entitles them to roar the kind of abuse which would probably earn them a beating if they said it to a player's face.

Arguing that players are paid enough money to put up with this simply exposes the jealousy at the heart of the whole ignoble enterprise.

Why does The Beautiful Game have the ugliest fans?

- Eamonn Sweeney
http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/premier-league/soccer-laid-low-by-sickening-culture-2982531.html

Good piece alright

[Youghal Exile]

Sweeney Is a nasty piece of work end of story.


Corcoran joins 'trash talkers'


ONE of the most appealing features of the GAA has always been the obvious respect the players have for each other. No matter how hard the game is or how fierce the rivalry, hurlers and footballers have nothing but praise for each other when they leave the pitch.
Football and hurling have been spared the tabloid-driven bad-mouthing culture of soccer. The habit is so prevalent in American sport they even have a name for it, 'Trash Talk.' That's why the recent macho media posturing of the Australian Rules players struck such a false note. Whatever their other faults, GAA players don't go in for that kind of useless chat.

Or at least they didn't. Not till the release of Brian Corcoran's autobiography in which the Cork player decides to dispense with the good manners which up till now have been central to relations between teams.

Corcoran reveals that in the run-up to Cork's All-Ireland hurling semi-final against Waterford, the Rebels had two posters made up, entitled, 'Our World,' and 'Their World.' Our World contained a list of the many positive qualities possessed by Cork. Their World listed the qualities the Corkmen thought were typical of Waterford, including, "Losing. Fighting Among Themselves. Playing for oneself, not the team. Relying on luck. Bringing others down to their level."

There you have it. Cork's opinion of Waterford, not merely used in the build-up to the game but proudly repeated in print by Corcoran. You can't finesse this one or minimise it. According to Cork, Waterford's players fight among themselves, play for themselves rather than the team, rely on luck and bring others down to their level. It is probably the most insulting thing to be written about one group of hurlers by another.

Elsewhere Corcoran accuses Waterford of being a group of individuals rather than a team, claims that Tony Browne gave up in the 2005 All-Ireland quarter-final, something which a Cork player would never do, and notes that Waterford clubs seem to be perpetually fighting each other in the latter stages of their county championship.

To top it all, he notes that the big difference between the current Cork and Waterford teams is that, "they are playing for greatness within their own county but we are playing for greatness in the history of hurling."

These insults would be bad enough if they were true. But they are actually a distortion of reality which gravely traduce a team which has given much to hurling over the last decade.

Take that line about, "bringing others down to their level." Well, the best game of hurling in recent years was the 2004 Munster final when Waterford actually brought hurling up to a level that Cork could not match.

I have not noticed the likes of Paul Flynn, Ken McGrath, Tony Browne and Dan Shanahan playing for themselves and not the team either. And I'm not convinced that Eoin Kelly, John Mullane and Dave Bennett rely on luck rather than skill.

This idea that Cork do everything right and Waterford do everything wrong is bizarre in the extreme. Cork have enormous resources of population to call on, much greater than that of any other hurling county. Their current team includes players with All-Ireland under-21 and minor medals. Waterford, by contrast, have had little success at under-age level and have nothing like Cork's pick. In the circumstances Justin McCarthy's two Munster titles may be just as impressive a feat as the two All-Irelands Donal O'Grady and John Allen steered Cork to.

(It goes without saying, of course, that Cork's caricature of Waterford is two fingers to McCarthy who is being portrayed as a manager who'd put up with this kind of rubbish from his team.)

So what's going on? Why has Corcoran opted to break with tradition and stick the boot into the Decies? He's not the kind of guy you'd have expected to come out with something like this after a long career during which he always played the game in an exemplary spirit. Having interviewed him, I'd have to say that he struck me as a modest man and most unlikely trash talker.

Perhaps the problem is that the Erin's Own man has become affected by the prevailing philosophy of a Cork side which, in recent years, became the most self-aggrandising outfit in the history of Gaelic games. He probably didn't have anything against Waterford, they just happened to sustain collateral damage as Cork rained down missiles of praise upon themselves.

This idea that Cork do everything right and Waterford do everything wrong is bizarre in the extreme

For example, in the same chapter where he disses the Decies, Corcoran describes a speech he gave to his team-mates outside the Burlington on the morning of that semi-final where he went on, at surprising length for a rainy day, about the parallels between Cork and Tiger Woods (they are Tiger to Waterford's Sergio Garcia, was the jist of it.)

But the unpalatable truth for Corcoran and his team-mates is that they inhabit a completely different universe from Tiger Woods and invoking his example, as though they were his equals, is deluded in the extreme. It's like a man who's just built six houses in Glanmire invoking the example of Donald Trump. Or a lad who plays the casio organ in the corner of the pub of a Saturday night telling you he understands Michael Jackson's paranoia because that's how it goes when you're a pop star.

Tiger has to take on the best in the world, the pick of every country where they play golf. Every failure of nerve or technique has the potential to cost him vast sums of money. Brian Corcoran has to take on opponents from a handful of counties on a small island. And he'll still get paid at the end of the week no matter how he does.

This is not to belittle hurling, just to put it into perspective. You don't love your wife any the less because she's not Eva Herzigova just as she's forgiven you for not being Brad Pitt. But it's this notion that Gaelic games should ape professional sport which is at the heart of Corcoran's witless words on Waterford. The whole book is obviously inspired by books on American sports where this kind of nonsense is a lingua franca.

Seeing it applied to our own games is an unpleasant experience. It's like wandering into an old beloved GAA bar, the type that used to have Carrolls All-Stars posters on the wall and a man who knew Mick Mackey in the corner, and finding it's been transformed into Big Tex's All-American Sports Bar And Grill.

The last laugh, of course, is on the author. Because after all the huffing and putting Cork didn't even win the All-Ireland. And though Corcoran claims that, "no other team has been as professional as us, no other team has our team spirit, no other team has made the sacrifices we have," it is Kilkenny who have been the best team of the contemporary era.

Judging by the book, Cork are fond of their stats. So here's a stat: Five All-Irelands, Kilkenny 3 Cork 2.

Without (one suspects) Brian Cody having recourse to posters denigrating the opposition, the Cats have done just fine.

[Youghal Exile]

In fairness the Mossy banks article was Spud Heads Thick As A Brick.His Joshua Tree.His Sergeant Peppers.His master work.:D


The artist at work. Mossie Langer gets off the couch. Goes to the phone. Fingers a blur as he dials the number. Perfect timing. Waits for an answer. Smooth delivery. "We're going to kill you." Hangs up. Beautifully judged. One lazy lope brings him back to the couch. Poetry in motion. How it's done. A performer. A winner. Interview exclusive to Hold The Back Page.

"I've made so many anonymous phone calls," he explains, "that you'd think it would be second nature. But you can always be better." YOU CAN ALWAYS BE BETTER! Mantra of a winner. Kind of guy he is. "I've got special finger pads in from America which enable me to shave hundredths of a second off my dialling time. It can make all the difference. And I've watched dozens of video nasties to help me get the right threatening vibe from my phone calls. Because I want to be a winner." A winner. Mossie Langer. That's him. Winning's not everything, it's the only thing. Read that in Brian Corcoran's book.

Not always easy. Being a winner. "I actually got a couple of blisters on my fingers which made them sore. Maybe another guy would have taken a couple of days' rest. Not me. Couldn't do it. I go the extra mile." Going the extra mile.

Ringing Gerald McCarthy or Gerald's daughter or Gerald's son with a death threat. Ringing their house and hanging up. Ringing up and breathing down the phone line. "I suppose there are people who'd say I drove him to resign. Gerald did. But I don't want thanks. That's not what I'm in this for. I'm just doing my bit. Other people did theirs." Mossie Langer. Modest hero. Credit to Cork. Soldier in the Rebel Army.

He's disappointed with McCarthy's attitude. "After a while when I rang the house they wouldn't even answer the phone. Now that to me was cowardly. I felt Gerald owed it to the ordinary decent fan like me to pick up the phone and take the abuse. Where's the courage in letting the phone ring out?" Courage. Big part of Mossie's life. The defining virtue. The courage to be anonymous.

"I saw Gerald going down Patrick Street and I shouted 'McCarthy you're a bollocks' at him. Luckily it was dark at the time." Courage is what Mossie Langer is all about. His replica jersey a Red Badge of Courage (Note to editor: That's a literary reference. I'll win an award for that.)

"I suppose you could call me dedicated. I believe in giving it everything. I'd hate the dispute to end without me having done my very best. You do what you can." He does what he can. Did what he could. Does what he does. Mossie Langer doing it. Doing. It. Not enough hours in the day. Anonymous phone calls to be made. To Gerald. To Frank. To Teddy before that. To any County Board member whose name he can find. Anonymous phone calls to the papers. Libellous allegations to be made about Gerald, about Frank. About Teddy before that. About any County Board member whose name he can find. If it wasn't for the County Board, Cork would be going for eight-in-a-row this year.

"It's not just phone calls. The internet is very important to me too." Mossie Langer Technophile. Techno. Phile. From the Greek. Techno meaning "able to." Phile meaning "switch on the computer." Brave new world.

Guys like Mossie take no shit because they've got third-level education, bits of paper from Cork IT. Groves of academe. Hallowed halls of learning.

"I like to go on those sites where you can get across a lot of anonymous abuse." Peoples Republic of Cork. PRC. A lot of PRCs out there. Mossie may be the biggest PRC of all. Likes to invade chat rooms of other counties, bring discussion back to basics. "What's wrong with you, you langer." An intellectual. A mass debater. Not just on sport. Likes to ring 103FM too. If the blacks don't like it here, they can go home; if the likes of you and me behaved like the tinkers, we'd be in jail. Voice of reason. Common sense.

Cork hurling is his life. Dedication beyond the call of duty. Half a dozen games a year. "But like no league games or club games or football games, only a fool would go to them. Only someone like that miserable County Board shower. You'd look a right sad bastard going to a game with less than 40,000 people at it." Went as far as the gates of Páirc Uí Chaoimh the day of the football league game against Fermanagh. Went into shock. Suffered seizure on account of close proximity to National League game. Went home. "An hour of my Sunday I gave up that day. It's a sacrifice. But sometimes you have to make sacrifices." Made the pub in time for Sky Sports Super Sunday. Close-run thing. Makes more sacrifices than an Aztec medicine man.

All-round sportsman. Will watch anything in the pub. Loves Munster rugby. Never been to Thomond or any other rugby pitch but shouts, "O'Driscoll you're only a poof," at the telly, even when Leinster aren't playing. Was a dedicated Sunderland fan for nearly two seasons. Thinks Roy Keane's joke about Clive Clarke's heart attack was hilarious. Mossie's kind of joke. Looking for Clive's number so he can shout, "Clive, how's your heart you langer," down the line at him. Niall Quinn. Another bollocks. Everyone a bollocks except Cork hurlers, Roy Keane, Mossie Langer.

Voice fills with outrage. Emotion. "What did Gerald McCarthy ever do for Cork hurling?" Didn't know Gerald won five All-Irelands. "Well, he never won two in-a-row." Mossie. Right as ever. Gerald won three in-a-row. "Yeah, but like that was back in the past. History." History doesn't matter to Mossie. Stuff that happened back in the past. What are Gerald's useless old All-Irelands compared to Mossie, ten bottles of Bulmers on board, abusing

Davy Fitzgerald from behind the goal. Who do the team respect? Who's on their side like? Thinks Eudie Coughlan is a cold and flu remedy. Balty Ahearne was the last Taoiseach. Tony O'Shaughnessy plays for Limerick.

Passionate. Passion defines him. Nothing he won't do for Cork. Made those phone calls to Gerald and now Gerald is gone. Knows the players can't thank him in public. But there was no statement to condemn him either. Appreciated that. He'll tap them on the shoulder some night in Washington Street, tell them all about it. Not boasting like. Not pretending to be a hero. Just doing his bit for the team.

Mossie Langer. Today's hero. In today's country. Tomorrow belongs to him. The caper in Cork made him. Cheek of Nickey Brennan to say he's no GAA man. Mossie's the new model GAA man. Ask not what you can do for your county. Thinks of the sound at the other end of the phone as he stayed silent, Gerald's family spooked by the phone calls. Driven to distraction. The sound of success. The sound of a winner. Watching games won't be half as much fun. A dirty job but someone had to do it.

Happiest week of his life. Bye bye, Gerald. One black spot. Club delegates claiming responsibility. Like where were they all along? Coaching some shitty underage team or going to some useless meeting. They didn't win this one.

It was Mossie wot won it.

[wayne gayle]

Good piece by Eamonn today:


Soccer laid low by sickening culture

Sunday January 08 2012
Your mother is a whore. Your wife takes it up the arse. You're a cunt with HIV.

Come on, where's your sense of humour? These comments are hilarious. Lighten up and get into the spirit of things.

Okay then, maybe they're not that hilarious. They're the kind of things one human being should be ashamed to say to another.

Yet they were chanted by thousands of soccer fans at, respectively, Emanuel Adebayor, David Beckham and Sol Campbell. No action was taken against these supporters or their clubs. In fact, Spurs eagerly pointed out to UEFA that their supporters' Adebayor chants, directed against the striker when he played for Real Madrid, "weren't racist." That's tickety boo then. Nothing wrong with calling someone's mother a whore as long as you don't mention her skin colour.

Last week there were claims that Doncaster Rovers striker Billy Sharp was taunted about the death of his new-born son by Barnsley fans. You could claim that this represents a new low for the game. But then you'd have to overlook the incident back in 2007 when Shamrock Rovers fans jeered Drogheda United's Simon Webb about the death of his wife.

Abusive chants aren't just tolerated within soccer, they're gleefully reproduced on the web and in certain newspapers which seem to regard them as witty banter which is part and parcel of the game. But though I've stood on many a terrace in my time, I still find it difficult to understand the mentality of people who come out with this kind of stuff. Who sneers at a dead wife or child? You'd need to create a new category of bollocks for someone like that.

When journalists refer to the 'sick culture' of professional soccer, they tend to be referring to the unforgivable tendency of the young men who play the game to earn large amounts of money, drink unwise amounts of beer and sleep with many attractive young women. But the real sickness is not on the pitch but in the stands where a horde of spoilt brats think the price of the ticket entitles them to roar the kind of abuse which would probably earn them a beating if they said it to a player's face.

Arguing that players are paid enough money to put up with this simply exposes the jealousy at the heart of the whole ignoble enterprise.

Why does The Beautiful Game have the ugliest fans?

- Eamonn Sweeney
http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/premier-league/soccer-laid-low-by-sickening-culture-2982531.html

Totally agree with the above. The main reason why I used to be an obsessive Liverpool fan but now I can take or leave English footie.

[TonyCork80]

I've been critical of Sweeney in the past. The Mossie PRC article was a disgrace. And was clearly cashing in on the actions of a very sick young man to settle scores. I also think he got it wrong on Corcoran, as he has often criticised bland sports autobiographies himself. He can't have it every which way.

I think over the last 12 months though he has assembled the best body of work of any sports columnist in the country in that time. He has written brilliant stuff across a range of sports, and should be applauded for that.

There were a lot of people who's GAA opinions I'd respect hugely that I disagreed with over the strike. The last thing we need is another debate on the strike. *

[Youghal Exile]

I've been critical of Sweeney in the past. The Mossie PRC article was a disgrace. And was clearly cashing in on the actions of a very sick young man to settle scores. I also think he got it wrong on Corcoran, as he has often criticised bland sports autobiographies himself. He can't have it every which way.

I think over the last 12 months though he has assembled the best body of work of any sports columnist in the country in that time. He has written brilliant stuff across a range of sports, and should be applauded for that.

There were a lot of people who's GAA opinions I'd respect hugely that I disagreed with over the strike. The last thing we need is another debate on the strike. *

His articles about the footballers are bang on but at the same time trying to portray one of the greatest hurlers of his or any generation as some sort of sneering and jeering jackass was very bad form.At least a Cork hurler or member of of the hurlers management team never tried to intimidate an RTE interviewer live on air unlike St Cody!

[Youghal Exile]

This is a piece he did about the Waterford team in 07.


Thank you Waterford, you the championship would have been as miserable as the weather


THERE was a fashion one time for the presentation of honours to sportsmen on the basis of perceived special merit rather than actual results. Dorando Pietri, who collapsed within sight of the finishing line in the 1908 London Olympic marathon and lost out to Bloomingdales employee John Hayes (whose parents hailed from Tipperary), received an enormous trophy for his efforts instead of a gold medal.


And in 1953 the Galway County Board presented a special set of medals to their hurling team following a narrow defeat by Cork in the All-Ireland final and a couple of post-match attacks on Christy Ring in The Gresham and Barry's Hotel, Ring having broken the jaw of the Tribesmen's captain Mickey Burke during the match.

Perhaps the GAA should take a lesson from history and mint a set of medals for the Waterford hurlers in recognition of the service they have done the Association these past couple of months. Because Waterford have done nothing less than single-handedly rescue the hurling championship.

On the other side of the draw from the Decies, Kilkenny have reached the final without playing a single Munster team. Their path to the decider has involved two virtual walkovers against woeful Wexford, another against Offaly and a scarcely more difficult encounter with a confused Galway outfit during which Brian Cody's men only got going in the closing minutes and still came out on top by 10 points.

We still don't know how good Kilkenny are after an All-Ireland semi-final which looked about as demanding as an early season Walsh Cup match. And, if their exertions of the past couple of weeks render Waterford liable to be caught on the hop today by Limerick, Kilkenny could end up winning the easiest All-Ireland of modern times. Once more the integrity of the championship is in Waterford's hands.

And not for the first time. Had Ken McGrath's cohorts not engineered that last gasp equaliser against Cork in the drawn game, the Munster champions would have been eliminated from the championship having lost just one match, by a team which had already lost twice. There's surely something wrong there. Waterford's fighting spirit saved the GAA's blushes.

They have also saved us from another Cork-Kilkenny final. Three of the last four deciders have been between the big two, the first time there's been a sequence of such monotony since Cork and Dublin met in the 1941, 1943 and 1944 deciders. There's never in the history of hurling been identical final pairings four years out of five. But there would have been only for Waterford.

Without the Decies the championship would have been as miserable as the weather. And their contribution hasn't merely been a negative one, though in saving us from tedium, inequity and oligarchy it is praiseworthy enough in itself. They have emerged as probably the most beloved team in Gaelic games since Ger Loughnane's boys from nowhere went all the way in 1995.

Individually there is something uniquely compelling about Dan Shanahan's run of goals, about John Mullane's single-minded focus, about Eoin Kelly's struggles with his form, about Ken McGrath's power, Tony Browne's drive, Paul Flynn's knack to come up with the telling contribution at the vital time, about the Brick and the Bull.

Every Waterford game is a thriller because they do not have the defensive solidity to ever be sure they've done enough. There is a hectic feel about their play, an off the cuff quality which makes them the hurling equivalent of tight-rope walkers doing tricks high above the ground without a net. Sometimes it's almost too nerve wracking to watch. Almost, because if you look away for a second you'll miss something.

It's interesting, too, to see how little mention there's been of Justin McCarthy this season. The accepted narrative when Waterford broke through in 2002 was of a managerial genius getting the best out of limited players. But somewhere along the line the story has changed. This year the players have taken ownership.

There's something refreshing about Waterford's seat of the pants approach. For the past few seasons we've heard so much about the attention to detail, the avoidance of mistakes, the careful calculation which a championship campaign entails. A Celtic Tiger-loving media coterie listened to Cork's corporate speak and found it good. The kind of clichés spouted at early morning breakfast briefings in hotel conference rooms found their way into the sporting lexicon. No higher praise could be offered to a player than the suggestion that he'd probably do very well in business. Because hurling, it seemed, was business by other means.

Waterford don't fit into that mould. They are, by and large, unmistakably working class. Their key figures are factory workers and tradesmen. They have tattooes and dodgy dentistry and grew up on city housing estates. And that strikes a chord with the lads all over the country whose working day begins with a jump out of the van at eight in the morning to load up on breakfast rolls, and the others who are getting off shift work at the same time.

There are more of them out there than David McWilliams might have you believe. And the GAA belongs to them no less than to the computer programmer, the bank official, the teacher and the self-employed businessman.

The Decies don't know the marketing department clichés. They're old fashioned that way. They hurl hard, they take their belts, they get on with it. They have no interest in talking up their victories, in persuading the world they've found a new way to approach the game. That's their world and they're happy with it.

Today dawns with Waterford just two steps from heaven. Chances are they won't need any specially minted medals come September. But whatever happens, they've got one title under their belt already; Saviours Of The Hurling Championship.

Go Decies.

[CORKBHOY]

I've been critical of Sweeney in the past. The Mossie PRC article was a disgrace. And was clearly cashing in on the actions of a very sick young man to settle scores. I also think he got it wrong on Corcoran, as he has often criticised bland sports autobiographies himself. He can't have it every which way.

I think over the last 12 months though he has assembled the best body of work of any sports columnist in the country in that time. He has written brilliant stuff across a range of sports, and should be applauded for that.

There were a lot of people who's GAA opinions I'd respect hugely that I disagreed with over the strike. The last thing we need is another debate on the strike. *

I didn't even read it in full, I'd heard the gist, started it and left it off. But I wouldn't get the hump over it take a 'I'm never reading him again stance' as I'd heard some lads say. Not every writer covers themselves in glory and sometimes to make an emphatic point you end up pissing some group off. I bet some die hard soccer fans took offence to the piece I posted above. He had a very good piece on the Cork footballers a couple of years ago, complimenting the spirit of junior clubs and as you say the last year he's had a great collection of articles covering a wide variety of sports.

[Youghal Exile]

I didn't even read it in full, I'd heard the gist, started it and left it off. But I wouldn't get the hump over it take a 'I'm never reading him again stance' as I'd heard some lads say. Not every writer covers themselves in glory and sometimes to make an emphatic point you end up pissing some group off. I bet some die hard soccer fans took offence to the piece I posted above. He had a very good piece on the Cork footballers a couple of years ago, complimenting the spirit of junior clubs and as you say the last year he's had a great collection of articles covering a wide variety of sports.

I think you said it best CorkBhoy i'll leave Spud Head alone and give him credit where it's due.:D