Sledging a blight on the game

By John Fogarty

It was the D’Unbelievables character Timmy Ryan who, in comically addressing the fictional Glengooly U13 hurling team, epitomised the GAA’s indifference to sledging.

“The standard of name-calling in this team is diabolical,” declared Jon Kenny’s roguish mentor. “There is no point in going up to your man and calling him a sissy, sticking your tongue out and running away.

“No, you go hard into him, lads, so the referee can see you but can't hear you. Then you start, lads, you insult his mother, insult his grandmother, you insult his sisters, you insult every single seed and breed of them.

“You insult the s**** out of his family, annihilate him, lambaste him. You make sure that man hits you. When he hits you, you hit the ground, he gets the line, we get the free. Fifteen men down to 14.”

The words sledging, a term founded in cricket, and trash-talking are recent addition to the GAA vernacular.

Before, the act of verbally abusing an opponent was regarded as hopping a ball or busting a player’s carraigs. It was nothing.

In a country where euphemistic expressions like The Emergency and The Troubles were spawned, it's hardly surprising that we for so long couldn’t – or wouldn’t – find an appropriate term in our lexicon to describe it.

However, with GAA director general Páraic Duffy mentioning both sledging and trash-talking as issues for the Association at inter-county level over the weekend, there is no doubt they are now recognised for what they are: a blight on the game.

Whether they are here to stay, it’s up to the players. Just one working day after Duffy spoke to the GPA chief executive Dessie Farrell about the matter which raised its ugly head once again in Portlaoise last Sunday week, the official players body had drafted a letter to sent to its members.

As Colm O’Connor reports today in the Irish Examiner, part of the letter reads: "While recognising the realities of contact sport and that verbal clashes will occur between players from time to time, the use of abuse or ‘sledging’ is unacceptable and is particularly harmful to the reputation of our games.

“We would urge all players to shun this behaviour and respect their opponents. As role models for hurling and football members need to be mindful of the impact of their actions and words on the pitch, particularly in regard to their influence on younger people."

Ironcially, Farrell was part of a Dublin panel in the mid-Noughties that were notorious for their verbal warfare.

Personally, Farrell was not known much for such jousting himself but the likes of Paul Casey were.

Speaking back in 2006, he defended his gamesmanship. “I've been on the receiving end of it as well, but you do what you can to get a psychological edge over your opponent.

“It's all about getting that little advantage over him whether it be by outplaying him or having a word or two.”

That may sound almost forgivable but then what extremes did they go to?

There’s the story of how one county routinely found out the names of its opponents’ wives and girlfriends and constantly reminded them of the fact during games.

Pretty condemnable stuff, really, but things have got decidedly worse of late.

Although it seemed that way, Armagh’s statement released last week citing the chanting of God Save The Queen and their players being racially abused wasn’t specifically directed at Laois.

Their grievances extended beyond last Sunday week. After separate incidents in Tralee, Portlaoise and Croke Park over the last two months in which the Armagh and Crossmaglen teams were involved, county officials had reached the end of their tether and were moved to issue the press release.

It was badly worded and, as a result, the purpose of it was defeated – Armagh in private apologised to Laois. But as Duffy said, they had reason to put finger to keyboard.

Armagh have been on both sides of the sledging fence, of course. In 2006, Paul Hearty was made to pay for his ridiculing of Kieran Donaghy when the Kerry full-forward struck that second-half goal, Donaghy famously giving his “how do you like them for apples?” taunt to Hearty lying on the ground.

In Ulster in 2008, Steven McDonnell recalled being verbally abused by Fermanagh goalkeeper Ronan Gallagher for the entirety of the game. In the replay, McDonnell found the net and took great pleasure in rubbing Gallagher’s face in it.

But therein lies the problem. Sledging is an act of cowardice but it has the power to bring everyone down to its base level.

If a word isn’t matched with a word, it is, as Timmy Ryan hopes, met with a fist or a leg. Tomás Ó Sé has been on the end of a number of verbals over the last three seasons. That he has lashed out on occasions doesn’t make his actions any way condonable but he didn’t instigate any of those incidents. Yet the “sledger” walks free.

As long as that continues, the GAA has a problem. As long as this misguided belief that once a player crosses the white line anything bar extreme violence goes, the GAA has a problem.

The GPA sure has a job on its hands to tackle the potty mouths of some players.

Going by the verbals exchanged between DCU’s Dublin players and Kildare’s first-team members in last month’s O’Byrne Cup final, the Croke Park field will play host to a cacophony of insults only a sailor would be proud of should the counties meet this summer.

Have no doubt, other keen rivalries will generate the same offensive slabber.

It’s sad, really, because sledging is primarily a preserve of the weak.

Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/ftaXs5BePQY/post.aspx

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