Brolly apologised to Cavanagh over ‘man’ comment

RTÉ pundit only intended to reflect player’s on-pitch behaviour

Monaghan’s Conor McManus is dragged down by Tyrone’s Seán Cavanagh during the All-Ireland football quarter-final at Croke Park. Photograph:  Ryan Byrne/Inpho
Monaghan’s Conor McManus is dragged down by Tyrone’s Seán Cavanagh during the All-Ireland football quarter-final at Croke Park. Photograph: Ryan Byrne/Inpho

RTÉ Gaelic football analyst Joe Brolly has confirmed that he has talked to Tyrone player Seán Cavanagh following last Sunday's All-Ireland quarter-final against Monaghan and apologised for one part of his outburst against the player's cynical foul on Conor McManus.

Speaking on TV3’s morning programme, Brolly said that he intended his comments just in relation to what goes on on the field and not in the player’s private life.

Brolly also stood over his comments in relation to cynical fouling and its harming of the spirit of the game.

Asked had he made contact with Kavanagh, Brolly said: “I have, I rang Seán yesterday actually, and well, you know, I wasn’t conscious of, I meant everything I said, everything that I said, and it is a cancer in the game cynical fouling and it’s destroying the spirit of the game and it’s permeating through to underage levels and all of that.

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“I talked to Seán yesterday and apologised to Seán for one line, and which I hadn’t realised that I had said at the time, about as far as he’s a man, you can forget about it. What I meant obviously as as a man he doesn’t conduct himself on the sporting field the way he ought to, it’s nothing to do with his private life.

“I stand over everything I said, but I didn’t intend to impute anything about his private life , it’s most unfair and I appreciate that when I looked at it again. Fair was fair and he was very gracious about it accepting its.”