Kill or be killed.
It’s a man’s game. Kieran Donaghy is a man, Aidan O’Shea certainly is a man.
They are two of the game’s most physical, courageous warriors and they’re probably two of the best teammates you could dream of having on the GAA field.
They’ll stand up for themselves, they’ll stand up for their teammates, they’re in it to win it and they’ll have themselves riled up to the last in order to do so.
That’s what Gaelic games are about, fighting for the cause, and doing as much as you possibly can to ensure that you are psyched up for the war.
Sometimes, we get caught up in it, in the heat of battle, blood rushes to the head, tempers boil over, we do things we shouldn’t.
Players get punished and they deserve to get punished. They’ve broken a rule, they’ve crossed a line and they get their comeuppance. They should be able to keep their emotions in check, but sometimes it’s all just too much for them, and they are human, it is excusable.
Kieran Donaghy took plenty of flak for his last minute, frustration-fuelled punch at Aidan O’Shea when Kerry were beaten and Mayo were cruising to an All-Ireland final.
The Kerryman appeared on SportsJOE Live, not long after the flashpoint, and he explained the atmosphere that was present, the mutual respect that exists between the two players and you’d have to appreciate his argument that such incidences can occur in the melting pot that is.
“It was a war zone there, both days against Mayo. They bring that to every game they play, they have to get credit for that,” he began.
“It was a good battle between myself and Aidan for the two days. He brought great aggression to it. They switched it up the second day, they had different lads on me. There was verbals going on, but it was good stuff. It was good to be a part of it,” added the Austin Stacks club man.
“At the end of it, he stood down on my foot, I boxed him. If that was the first ten minutes of the game, I wouldn’t have reacted like that,” he said.
“On my part, it was frustration, probably looking at the clock, 74 minutes gone and we’re four or five points down, in my subconscious, that was obviously going on in my head, because there’s no way I would have done that.
“He’s a big fella, with studs on him when he stands down on top of you. I kind of necked him, first, and then he was kind of going down. These things happen.”
“I never came across him on the basketball court, I’ve come across him enough times on the football pitch,” quipped Donaghy.
Donaghy claimed there was verbals going on between the pair throughout their titanic tussle, but that it was all good-spirited, and in the nature of the game.
“It was just when we scored a goal, I’d let him know, and when they scored a goal, he’d let me know. It was good, I enjoyed it, it was right to the edge for the two games and that’s the best way to play,” he concluded.
It’s dog eat dog. Players make mistakes, but they don’t always deserve to be vilified.
You can listen to Donaghy chat about his match-up with O’Shea here from 42″30′.
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