Tyrone won a compelling Division Two league final on a scoreline of 1-17 to 0-15 points against Cavan and in doing so, the once masters of the grim and stolid blanket defence, have burst upon Croke Park blazing a trail of style and flamboyance. First of all, full-back Ronan McNamee has gone all Djibril Cisse in taking to the field in different colour boots:
Tyrone's Ronan McNamee taking the Djibril Cisse approach to footwear at Croker today. #AllianzLeagues pic.twitter.com/bpCM5gGlSb
— Balls.ie (@ballsdotie) April 24, 2016
Ronan McNamee, the Tyrone full-back, is wearing two different coloured boots. Gaelic football is dead.
— Kieran Cunningham (@KCsixtyseven) April 24, 2016
Ronan McNamee will be thrown out of the full-back union for wearing two different boots.
— Ryan Ferry (@RFerry92) April 24, 2016
Balls.ie reader Danny O'Shea then revealed to us the disturbing news that it is in fact Puma - the manufacturers of the product that grounded GAA players in more ways than one, the PUMA King - are selling these boots as a pair, and are responsible for the inconsistent colour scheme:
@ballsdotie They're the new Puma boots. Same horrible pair unfortunately. pic.twitter.com/jGU8XQeYhW
— Danny O'Shea (@DannyBlaa) April 24, 2016
Mickey Harte has been a GAA trailblazer in the past, most notably tactically, but we don't know exactly how much influence he has over Ronan O'Neill's revolutionary introduction of the 'dab' celebration to GAA. For the uninitiated, the full history of the dab can be read here. It is essentially a celebration involving the kissing of one's biceps in an orgy of vainglory, made most famous by Cam Newton of the Carolina Panthers and footballers including Paul Pogba and Jesse Lingard. It has now been brought to the GAA, as O'Neill celebrated his goal in the Division Two league final. Here it is in frame-by-frame form:
Many saw it as a watershed moment in the history of our great sport:
Tyrone bringing sexy back today! #dab #volley pic.twitter.com/RC9pq9avU7
— Connor O'Donnell (@ConnorOD15) April 24, 2016
Tyrone senior footballer celebrated goal with a dab, what has GAA come to? #dabnation
— Niall Hannigan (@HanniganNiall) April 24, 2016
Did that Tyrone lad just dab after scoring there? Oh dear. #GAA #AllianzLeagues #Dabbing #eejit
— Jude (@Judacus91) April 24, 2016
Did i just watch the tyrone no.15 dab after his goal?? #whatislife
— Jacinta Faulkner (@jacintaok87) April 24, 2016
Tyrone should lose this automatically after that 'Dab' nonsense #StampItOut #AllianzLeagues
— Peter Farrell (@PeterFarr_) April 24, 2016
And, of course, no discussion of Tyrone's burgeoning style would be complete without a gaze at the man rocking the '1990's boy band' look better than anyone else in Irish public life, Tiernan McCann:
Great to see zayn malik get the man of the match award @SportTG4 @GAA_BEO @RorysStories @GAAHits @tomas5ky pic.twitter.com/yW7N7bYZUS
— David Morrissey (@DavidMorrissey5) April 24, 2016
Tiernan McCann 'Hairstyle Man' wins MOTM. The GAA 'world' celebrates @SportTG4
— The Real Kav (@LeoKavanagh) April 24, 2016
