During the interval of both All-Ireland football finals last year erupted a great sound and fury from Mayo, as fans accused an orchestrated campaign against Lee Keegan in the media, supposedly executed by former Dublin players in the media. The accusation from Mayo fans was that these former Dublin players were using their profile to accentuate Keegan's on-field indiscretions, with a view of drawing the referee's focus to Lee Keegan, who had the job of marking Diarmuid Connolly.
The existence of a so-called campaign was flagged by Mayo fans online, and former player David Brady accentuated what he believed to be a deliberate campaign when speaking to Newstalk ahead of the game:
It's an orchestrated list of facts, opinions, statistics and arguments that Lee Keegan is a marked man and it's not what we should be talking about in the week up to what could be one of the greatest games of GAA ever.
This is not just coincidence. It's happened two, three if not four times on different days that they're coming out and saying x, y and z about Lee Keegan.
Keegan scored a goal in the replay before picking up a black card, giving ammunition to those who believed its existence.
Speaking ahead of this week's league final with Dublin, Kerry boss Eamonn Fitzmaurice has dredged that story up once again, as he worries something similar is going to happen to his side. Former Dublin footballer Paul Curran was exceptionally critical of Kerry this week, as he told the Herald that Kerry "should be ashamed of themselves" for the style of their performance against Dublin in the league, adding that "whether they had them or not, but they all told us they had values. They’ve abandoned them completely".
Fitzmaurice last night defended his team, and dredged up the Keegan story from last year in a big to guard against the same happening to Kerry this weekend.
These quotes come via the
I have never tried to paint us whiter than white, but what I find annoying at the moment, and the reason I felt that I had to respond this evening, was out of my duty to the players that we are going into the weekend on a level playing pitch. My worry was that it was developing into a situation like the All-Ireland final replay last year where there was an orchestrated campaign against Lee Keegan that was effective for the All-Ireland final replay.
So normally, as I said, I would not open my mouth about things like that but I feel out of my duty to the players I had to address it this evening.
I had to say that there is a complete lack of balance even within our own county, and I just think it’s unfair on our players.
The temperature for the league final just went up by a couple of notches.
[Irish Examiner]
