Dublin forward Diarmuid Connolly is a marked man.
The boys in blue beat Westmeath to win their sixth Leinster title in a row on Sunday , but the talk after the game surrounded Connolly, his tussle with James Dolan, and the comments made by Westmeath manager Tom Cribbin afterwards.
Here’s what Cribbin had to say.
“Diarmuid is a fabulous player, he can get a bit excited at times and probably we were looking for him to.”
“We were hoping to try and get someone to entice him, sure that’s what most teams do.”
The St. Vincent’s man says he has not heard the comments, and although being aware of them and the tactics employed by Westmeath and other teams against him, he’s focused on his own game.
Dolan rubbed Connolly on the head which led to the Dublin man getting his opponent in a head-lock and dragging him to the ground.
Connolly was then surrounded by a number of Westmeath players (photo above)
Both players received yellow cards for their parts in the incident in the 15 point victory for the Dubs.
The 29 year old says he uses incidents like this on the pitch to motivate him to win, and will not re-act.
The Dublin manager Jim Gavin has also had his say on the incident.
Connolly was speaking as the GAA launched the 2016 All Ireland Football Championship.
You can listen to our full interview with Connolly on Now That’s What I Call Sport this Sunday morning with Jamie Moore.
The show starts at 9am.
