He’s in, he’s out, What the F**k’s it all about?
Talking Balls Comments
Obviously something is afoot in the Derry camp. On Sunday evening rumours started circulating on the discussion forums that a senior player was leaving the Derry set up. On Monday morning those BBC broadcasters with their finger indubitably on the pulse of the GAA as usual carried a story stating that Paddy Bradley had left the Derry panel after a meeting with Damian Cassidy following Sunday’s in-house match. The rumour mill went into whirligig mode. Other Derry players knew nathin’ either, or they were sayin’ nathin’. Omerta? Perhaps.
Round lunchtime Derry Co board apparatchik Seamus Mullan who moonlights as a sometime GAA correspondent for Radio Foyle categorically confirmed that Bradley had left the panel. He also referenced a couple of other issues that were of concern, quoting a ‘very reliable’ source.
At teatime, Mark Sidebottom, increasingly the Beeb in Norn Ireland’s answer to Adrian Logan, broadcast live from the Antrim footballers press night. The ranks of the media were swelled no doubt by the number of journos wanting to ask Baker about his son rather than Antrim’s successes, which must have annoyed him. Baker categorically denied that ‘Patrick’ had left the panel and cryptically suggested that the same boy would be lining out numbered between 14 and 30 for Derry on Saturday.
On Monday evening the Derry Co Board posted a note on their website categorically denying escalating rumours that Paddy Bradley had left the squad, this less than twelve hours after their own Board member Seamus Mullan categorically confirmed that he had left.
Anything for a bit of drama. Maybe Paddy and Cassidy cooked this up to divert folks away from the pressure of playing Monaghan twice in six weeks. Maybe Paddy had a frivolous bet with team sponsors Ladbrokes that he could be in and out and in again in the space of 24 hours. Maybe he doesn’t like the manager’s much vaunted system. Whatever, it’ll keep people guessing right up until the ball is throw in on Saturday. Will he or won’t he; is he or isn’t he.
Who cares?
