Gerry Carroll

[offalyman08]

Interview with Gerry Carroll on www.edenderrygaa.com. Its worth a read.

[offalyman08]

Carroll speaking about Eugene McGee.

"He fought with the county board over getting us refreshments, it started with milk and sandwiches, then a meal. At the time if you brought your wife or girlfriend to matches you had to pay for them, McGee soon sorted that out. The County Board officials were cheap c**ts. We had lads travelling from Dublin to train. He got us travel expenses"

[Lone Shark]

Pretty forthright stuff all right. I'm not sure if he's the best person to diagnose the current ills seeing as he's so far away from the scene, but he appears to be an interesting character certainly.

[Bord na Mona man]

Interesting interview.
I'd say Gerry was a bit of nutter in his day.

He makes some interesting points, he sounds a bit like Offalys Future at times.

"There not going to go anywhere unless they start getting kids together and given them a reason to stay playing Gaelic football. What happens when you finish playing minor, your 18 years old and next year your 19, if you can't make the senior team or the u21 team what do you do or what do you play? You play soccer or rugby."

The reason for this is simple - players are cherry picked at this stage.
You are valuable at minor because the team needs 20-25 players out of a narrow age bracket.
After that the best 4 or 5 are creamed off.
The rest can go off and do what they want.

[offalyman08]

Some good quotes from Carroll interview..

What was your reaction/feeling when you saw Darby's goal going in?
"I think I had two reactions really, I said to myself I can't believe he's hitting it with his left foot and so well, and I think my second was when I realised the score, you can stick your five in a row up your arse now!"

Quote regarding Eugene McGee dropping him for Leinster semi final in 1983
"I played on in the game but after that I was really pissed off with him. I didn't want to play for him after that. I think I was only going through the motions."

You have to admire his honesty.

[the bare biffo]

Great Stuff.

First time I saw Gerry Carroll play was on a minor team at midfield with Johnny Mooney, I think it was 77??. They beat a fancied Meath team in Mullingar and were unlucky to lose to Dublin in the leinster final.
They had some great players on that team though, I loved watching Ollie Bracken play. They went on to have a few very good years at u-21 level before the big one arrived in 81/82.

Gerry is spot on about 83 too. I remember seeing them tear wexford and Kildare apart in the run up to the leinster final that year, they were playing great stuff.
Cant understand that crack with McGees attitude at all.

Good man Gerry, thanks for the memories.

[offalyman08]

yeah your right "lone shark" he does seem interesting. He's pretty straight forward with his views on everyone ie. the county board and Eugene McGee.
I think personally it makes a big change, and for the better, that a sports star is honest in his views. Not sure if your a premiership fan but when you hear the garbage they come out with every week saying how great everyone is it get fairly annoying. Even the former players are too afraid to speak the truth

[Lone Shark]

yeah your right "lone shark" he does seem interesting. He's pretty straight forward with his views on everyone ie. the county board and Eugene McGee.
I think personally it makes a big change, and for the better, that a sports star is honest in his views. Not sure if your a premiership fan but when you hear the garbage they come out with every week saying how great everyone is it get fairly annoying. Even the former players are too afraid to speak the truth

Again, I'd say a big factor in this is the minor matter that if he says something controversial, he doesn't have to stand over his views in his local on a Friday night. Obviously that's not to say that he wouldn't have the same views irrespective or even that he wouldn't say them out loud, but it's a lot easier for someone like Carroll than it would be for Finbarr Cullen, who still has to run a business in Edenderry and in Offaly, where even if he was totally correct, he'd be running the risk of causing himself grief by making strong statements.