The relationship between the media and GAA managers\/players could rarely be described as harmonious.<\/p>\n
The key stakeholders have always regarded interviews with a healthy suspicion, particularly around championship time. The unwritten rule is to say as little as possible that could be used by the opposition as motivation.<\/p>\n
In that context, anything out of the ordinary in a media engagement can get more coverage than perhaps is warranted.<\/p>\n
A case in point was a recent interview with Cork hurler Alan Connolly, who was asked if the Rebels are a different group now to the one that lost to Tipperary in last July’s All-Ireland decider.<\/p>\n
“We kind of just focus on ourselves,” he said. “We’re not trying to worry about anyone else. When we’re at our best, I don’t think anyone can beat us.”<\/p>\n
That bullish response was borne out of a scintillating league campaign last year, followed by victory over Limerick in a memorable Munster final. Swotting aside Dublin in an All-Ireland semi-final was preceded by a second-half capitulation against Tipperary in the decider, a performance that has brought Cork’s resolve on the big day back into question.<\/p>\n
Since the Rebels last claimed Liam MacCarthy in 2005, they have played 12 national finals, with just one victory in that period; last year\u2019s league final against the Premier County.<\/p>\n
Connolly\u2019s comments have been picked up on in some quarters as further evidence of misplaced confidence, but speaking on the RT\u00c9 GAA podcast<\/a>, former Tipperary hurler Shane McGrath says such honesty should be commended. The only issue would be in backing it up on the field of play.<\/p>\n “Sometimes we nit-pick on comments when we don\u2019t need to, especially in the GAA world,” he said. “We love the honesty from players.<\/p>\n “He (Connolly) has to have faith in his own group. If he doesn\u2019t have faith in his own group, sure where are they going? If he goes out and says, ‘well, hopefully we win\u2019, that\u2019s nearly worse.<\/p>\n “I\u2019d prefer what Alan Connolly said. You go and back it up then with the performance.<\/p>\n “If they get backed up with performances, people will say, \u2018he was dead right\u2019.”<\/p>\n \n McGrath, a two-time All-Ireland winner in his playing days, believes modern GAA players have their buttons pressed in a different manner to those that went before them.<\/p>\n The famed newspaper clipping on the dressing room wall may have been replaced by screenshots on the phone, but in an era where sports psychology, personal accountability and performance data has become prevalent, the more traditional methods of rallying the troops is perhaps a thing of the past.<\/p>\n “I think if you\u2019re a team, and you have to go off as management and print off something that someone said about the team to try and get you going about the match, I think you\u2019ve lost before the game even begins.<\/p>\n “I think those days are becoming less and less. Lads know what is needed.<\/p>\n “You can\u2019t play a game purely on emotion \u2013 it\u2019s a part of it \u2013 but you have to play it on your skills and training.”<\/p>\n Listen to the RT\u00c9 GAA Podcast on the RT\u00c9 Radio Player<\/a>, Apple Podcasts<\/a>, Spotify<\/a>, or wherever you get your podcasts<\/a>.<\/p>\n Watch a Munster Hurling Championship double-header, Clare v Waterford (2pm) and Tipperary v Cork (4pm), on Sunday from 1.30pm on RT\u00c92 and RT\u00c9 Player. Follow our live blog on RT\u00c9.ie\/sport and RT\u00c9 News app and listen to Sunday Sport on RT\u00c9 Radio 1<\/p>\n Watch The Sunday Game from 9.30pm on RT\u00c92 and RT\u00c9 Player. Follow a live blog on all matches on the RT\u00c9 News app and on rte.ie\/sport. Listen to Sunday Sport on RT\u00c9 Radio 1 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The relationship between the media and GAA managers\/players could rarely be described as harmonious. The key stakeholders have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401429,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[61,60,112],"class_list":{"0":"post-401428","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-ie","9":"tag-ireland","10":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401428","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=401428"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401428\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401429"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401428"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401428"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401428"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}