While the world sat back flabbergasted at Martin McHugh's comments about Colm Cooper on the Sunday Game, Oisin McConville didn't flinch. A cunning Armagh man, with an actual handle on how to deal with the media, he knew exactly what McHugh was up to.
Speaking to the Irish Examiner, McConville has argued that McHugh was taking a bullet for Jim McGuinness and his comrades.
McConville contends that McHugh made his comments about Cooper in an effort to deflect attention from the Donegal camp in what is a huge week for the team:
If you’re gonna be Hercule Poirot about it you almost feel as if they’re trying to deflect from the camp just as Martin McHugh’s comments at the weekend deflected on Donegal. Both [Armagh and Donegal] propaganda machines are trying quite hard.
Meanwhile, McConville was highly critical of the Armagh media ban fiasco, saying:
I was buoyed by the fact we were going to speak to journalists. I thought, ‘right, they’ve made their point’ and were moving on. But this now smacks of a county that’s looking for headlines rather than trying to shy away from there. For it to be pulled at the last minute doesn’t seem right.
The GAA really is turning into the WWE more and more every day. Soon there will be managers randomly taking to the middle of the pitch before games to cut promos.
hat-tip: Irish Examiner
