What could he possibly be watching?
During the first semi-final of the summer when Mayo and Kerry played out an absolute clinker of a match that ended, of course, in a draw, Éamonn Fitzmaurice was allegedly being recorded.
The Kerry manager and his trusted ally Liam Hassett were said to be filmed by a man in the crowd sitting on the first row of the Hogan Stand.
The unidentified man is believed to have had a vacant seat beside him for the whole game where equipment was sat.
Naturally, during such a high time in the summer, suspicions were raised and accusations were made that this might be a member of the Tyrone or the Dublin backroom teams who still hadn’t played their semis and who would still potentially meet Kerry in the final. But what on earth would they get out of recording Éamonn Fitzmaurice?
A number of viewers spotted it during the drawn game at Croke Park but if such activity was noticed by a steward, it would have been queried.
The GAA policy is clear on recording at games.
Filming cannot take place unless you are a broadcast partner or permission was granted by the GAA…
During The GAA Hour live show at The Academy, host Colm Parkinson showed Ray Cosgrove and Dublin’s O’Byrne Cup winning manager Paul Clarke the picture and asked them if they knew the guy in question.
Wooly: Who is the man with the camcorder recording Éamonn Fitzmaurice?
Ray/Paul: …
Wooly: Do you recognise that man?
Ray: No. No idea.
Wooly: Clarkey, you’re kind of Dublin backroom team – you’re in that circle. Do you recognise that man?
Paul: Unless he’s someone from ‘Nam or something…
The Dubs on the show genuinely seemed taken aback. It’s not the clearest picture, it was a stinking day in the capital.
But Parkinson was still flabbergasted. What would anyone get out of this, never mind Tyrone or Dublin camps?
“What would the benefit of that be? He recorded Fitzmaurice for a full game. From a managerial point of view, where would that be coming from?” Wooly asked.
“He was recording Fitzmaurice, I have that on good authority.
“I think it’s really interesting and I’m just wondering from a managerial point of view, if he wanted to record the Kerry management, how did he get the seat right behind them? How did this all come about? And ‘why did he do it’ is the question really if it was part of the Tyrone or Dublin setups.”
If he was.
All’s fair in love and war.
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