Ex Tyrone footballer Enda McGinley and ex Mayo man David Brady spoke to Joe Molloy about all things GAA including The Super 8’s, the weekends results and the problems surrounding county football teams.
Brady gave his thoughts first- “I have to say the qualifiers this year have been absolutely fantastic. I think football is in a very, very positive place. There’s nobody that’s not looking forward to the super 8s. It’s a whole new world from a GAA context.
“It’s a whole new mindset for the teams. It’s not knockout, it’s going to be 'learn from your mistakes'. The teams that are there, there’s not one team that doesn’t deserve to be there. I think the teams that are there are stand out performers from the last 12 months. And for the last 12 days for me it has to be Kildare, fantastic all round performance at the weekend”, Brady said.
With Brady being impressed with Kildare, McGinley gave us his own thoughts over what impressed him from the weekend’s action.
“I was in Portlaoise where I seen the game of the season. The Roscommon-Armagh game, you had to be there to witness the quality and the entertainment. The atmosphere in the place was absolutely sensational. Everybody was turning to each other just going wow.
“It was old school, but in a modern way. Man marking all over the pitch. It was just both teams going flat out. It was phenomenal. I would have loved to have seen Mayo there. It’s a pity Mayo's not there. It was almost like a hurling game it was that good”, McGinley said.
He also spoke about the issues within “middle-tiered” county teams and how those within the county are almost against their team.
“Armagh didn’t produce anywhere near the quality that we’ve seen in the league. There’s people outside the circle trying to convince the players there’s no point in being around the county setup, convince them that they’re better off with their clubs and not committing to the county squad.
I think this is a big theme across many counties. That can be a real disease within the squad. We’ve seen it across many counties specially middle tiered teamed There’s anti-county in football. County football still brings something special.
