Irish football legend Kenny Cunningham was on 'Off The Ball' tonight and among other things - including his love of 'Big Brother' - he spoke about his once-promising GAA career.
Cunningham, who won 72 caps for the Republic of Ireland, told the show that he played with Dublin minors alongside the current county senior manager Jim Gavin and 1995 All-Ireland winner Dessie Farrell. And he made some interesting remarks about the sheer physicality of Gaelic football.
Cunningham was talking about his time playing in the ruthless Dublin senior club championship for Na Fianna as a 17-year-old:
Occasionally I'd jump over the fence (into Na Fianna's ground) or if I could squeeze a game in...I remember playing for Na Fianna once when I was only 17, with Dessie, and that was...wow, that was a sobering moment. In terms of the physicality.
Because I would have started off as centre-half back, an essential area. But I ended up in corner forward, for obvious reasons - just the physical nature.
I remember being in the dressing room before the game and standing up, and the coach suggested, 'Go toe-to-toe with the man beside you, face each other, and just start body punching each other for like 20-30 seconds.'
The alarm bells started ringing! 'I'm not sure about this long-term!'
Cunningham would go on to have a distinguished career in English football, but it's great to have another sportsperson to add to our list of famous people who played minor inter-county GAA.
Cunningham proved a great listen. He chatted about scrapping with Dennis Wise, spoke about Robbie Savage dissing his fashion sense and had serious craic with his old pal Kevin Kilbane. You can listen to the full show on the Newstalk website.
