Jim McGuinness has landed in China, and among his baggage is the GAA's: he has dedicated his Irish Times column this week to the never-ending saga of Jim Gavin's comments on the Character Assassination of Diarmuid Connolly by the RTE Analyst Pat Spillane.
As is now well-known, the Dublin manager used his press briefing after the shellacking of Westmeath to complain about the treatment of Connolly in the broadcast media, on which Connolly's good name was apparently attacked. This was followed by Dessie Dolan and Joe Brolly tossing Spillane under the bus, to which Spillane reserved his reply for his Sunday World column fully seven days later.
And now McGuinness has had his say. He clearly has a lot of respect for Gavin, but believes that the Dublin manager should retract his comments, and says that they brought the game into disrepute:
I feel that the Gavin's comments bring the game into disrepute. To say that "there is no doubt in my mind" that The Sunday Game panel influenced the decision is impossible to reconcile with what he must know to be the reality of the situation.
Imagine a manager saying that on Match of the Day? That, for instance, Alan Shearer's comments indirectly contributed to the suspension of a player. The Premier League would throw a book at him.
McGuinness is not saying this to defend The Sunday Game, as he writes himself:
I am far from the biggest fan of The Sunday Game. I felt that The Sunday Game had a constant agenda against Donegal when I was managing.
Its punditry did shape thought process around the country as to how we were perceived. But in reality, it meant nothing to what we did on the field.
The full column is well worth a read, and is on the Irish Times website.
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