GAA Christmas Crackers 2012 – Quotes of the Year

“We’ve been watching so much soccer lately you’d be drinking coffee and still fall asleep watching it.”

An exciting finish to the Waterford v Clare Munster semi final offered a welcome distraction from Euro 2012 for Cyril Farrell.

“If we gathered up twenty at the Red Cow and came down this morning it could hardly have been worse.”
Anthony Daly offered a candid assessment of how the Dubs surrendered tamely to Kilkenny despite the pre match build up.

“An American tourist would never have believed it if you’d told him The Gooch was one of the greats. If however you’d told him he was a choker, he would have agreed, since that is what Colm did against Cross.”
Joe Brolly comes down hard on Colm Cooper’s performance for Dr Crokes in the All Ireland club semi final.

“We have been asked to investigate this.”
Des Cahill and CSI Sunday Game bizarrely promise to uncover what Davy Fitzgerald said on the sideline during the Munster semi final.

“I have two All Irelands and you have **** all.”
The result of the investigation!

“The biggest worry I have is that we are not playing well all over the field. We are just not up to the pace of the game, we don’t look sharp, we don’t look fit and we don’t look mentally focussed and that’s something the management must sort out.”
After Tipperary amass 31 points at Semple Stadium to inflict a third league defeat, Waterford boss Michael Ryan attempts to get to the root of the problem. A backroom reshuffle follows soon after.

“It was one of those nights. We have to say that we didn’t turn up. We didn’t get to the pace of the game, I don’t know why that is to be honest about it. We were second from the word go, that’s the reality.”
Waterford under 21 selector Michael Walsh picks through the rubble after Clare inflicted a nineteen point hammering at Cusack Park.

“A misunderstanding between two fools!”
Eoin Kelly describes the pre season disagreement between himself and Michael Ryan after Waterford defeat Dublin to stay afloat in the top tier of the league.

“I suppose they are a bit cuter. In one instance in the first half, Henry (Shefflin) ran 30 or 40 yards down the field and was giving out to (referee) Barry Kelly and Damien Hayes for a free. That’s not sportsmanlike either at the same stage. That’s the way it goes – that’s probably the experience they have.”
The quotes from Joe Canning, at an event to promote the under 21 championship, that divided opinion before the replay.

“Well, we have to believe. We have to believe. We have to believe and we believe.”

Lar Corbett marks his comeback against Cork with an assist for Noel McGrath and strongly feels they can upset Kilkenny later in the year.

“On the Monday night before the Dublin match I still couldn’t puck a ball off the wall. And trying to tell Brian Cody that the next night at training was very difficult.”
Henry Shefflin tells Damian Lawlor that 2012 could have been a lot different as a shoulder injury proved difficult to shake off.

“From the tip of Malin, to the southerly point of the Drowes river, to the hills, the valleys and the towns along the majestic coastline, through the wild wilderness of the Blue Stacks – this will be celebrated like no other.”
Martin Carney gets swept up in the tide of emotion at the final whistle of the football final as Donegal ended a twenty year wait for Sam.

“There were a lot of things said in the book that were incorrect and untrue, some of it about me personally and about some of my players. The person who wrote that book had no researcher on the book to qualify what was said. The other people in the media that wrote fairly vile articles had no researcher to qualify the comments. It was an all-out attack for a couple of months on my character. I know what I’ve done, I know what I’ve coached, I know what I am as a person.”
Meanwhile, Jim McGuinness waits until after the All Ireland final to launch a rebuttal of “This Is Our Year” and removes the author Declan Bogue from the press conference in the process.