Handbags and teabags
Talking Balls
As you’ll all have heard by now, yesterday’s game at Parnell Park had it all - handbags, teabags, players acting the ballbag. . . whatever next?
It even had its very own Mrs Doyle incident as some unnamed Meath fan said ‘Go on, go on, ah ye will,’ offering Ciaran Whelan a nice cup of tea. This when referee Paddy Russell had said ‘Go off, go off , . . .’ after Ciaran Whelan gave an unruly Meath player a sharp lever with the elbow that he no doubt deserved.
Dublin Bainisteoir Paul Caffrey, well known for upholding right and wrong as far as his players are concerned, rather niftily diverted attention away from his abrasive midfielder and onto the Meath hot beverage tosser.
“I’m sure the spectator who threw that at Ciaran Whelan is not the proudest man, or maybe he is. Dublin and Meath have massive respect for each other and long may that continue. But supporters throwing hot cups of tea at players doesn’t enter into it.”
“That’s not a true reflection of the great Meath supporters. What goes on on the field of play goes on. Paddy Russell had his job to do and he did it. So we have no complaints about his handling of the game but I think it (lashing the hot tay round Whelan) was totally uncalled for. I’ve never seen it before.”
Funny enough way of ’showing respect’ you might think. But Pillar famously won’t accept any criticism of his own players.
Just in case it passed you by, last week he defended his three previous three red card recipients. . . ‘they’re not your typical combative players’; Mark Vaughan’s hobbit punch on Damian Freeman ‘was a clumsy tackle and a second yellow’. . . and in general the Dubs are not sending players out to be ‘hard men on football fields.’
Sources tell us that an urgent and immediate review of hospitality at Parnell Park is believed to be underway in light of the incident. The latest controversy follows the incident a few weeks back when the Dublin stats man headbutted Monaghan’s Tommy Freeman in a row over the last few choc-ices.