Pat Spillane's zest for life still burns bright
Pictured at Croke Park is former Kerry footballer Pat Spillane at the announcement of a new three-year partnership with Comfort Keepers, Ireland’s leading homecare provider, which has been named Official Community Impact Partner of the GAA and GPA. Comfort Keepers will bring its ambassadors into homes and communities across the country this year, connecting Gaelic games supporters of all ages and abilities. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile.
By John Harrington
Pat Spillane turned 70 last December, but the passing of time has done little to dull his shine.
You’d have seen that for yourself if tuned into his interview on the Tommy Tiernan show recently when his sense of humour and zest for life popped from the screen.
He was especially entertaining when talking about his penchant for online masses, how over time he’s triangulated where the best ones are to be found (Clonmany in Donegal comes highly recommended), and the benefits of combining a good online mass with an exercise bike.
Back in the day as a Sunday Game analyst he was used to polarising opinion, so he’s found the universally positive reaction to his turn on the Tiernan Show somewhat disarming.
“It just exploded, it’s been unreal,” said Spillane when speaking at the launch of Comfort Keepers as the Official Community Impact Partner of the GAA/GPA.
“Out of all the reactions, 30 years of Sunday Game and all this racket, I've never seen anything like it. The phone has been going non-stop.
“It was unreal on social media. On the law of averages on social media, the usual rule of thumb with the Sunday Game was, if I said it was Sunday, 10% would agree with me, 20% would disagree with me, 70% would say I was a b*****ks.
“Now it's 99% said, ‘Jaysus, you're a nice guy’. Only because I talked about religion, which I don't normally talk about.
“I swear to God, I've been invited to every mission, novena, mass, I've got them all! The last one, in fairness now, I was invited to Knock, and your man was on to me but I said no. And he said, ‘Jeez, this is the All-Ireland of novenas!’ I said, ‘the answer is still no!’”
Pat Spillane was a recent guest on RTE's Tommy Tiernan show.
Spillane was interviewed by Tiernan for an hour and ten minutes which was eventually edited down to 18 minutes for TV.
That can’t have been an easy job for the editors because Spillane isn’t a great man for answering a question with a relatively short answer.
His style of conversation is more akin to a Beat Poet who likes to veer of spontaneously in all sorts of different directions with little possibility for an interjection that might stop him in his flow.
Case in point, when he spoke to the media in Croke Park on Wednesday and was asked for his opinion on Mayo’s upward trajectory, his answer coursed on for five minutes and veered off in multiple directions from Kobe McDonald’s precocity to Jim McGuinness’ tactical naivety in last year’s All-Ireland Final.
His thoughts on Kobe were interesting, not least because it’s quite easy to draw some comparisons between Spillane and Mayo’s rising star.
Just like Spillane, McDonald has burst onto the senior inter-county scene as an 18-year-old, is a kicker of rare ability, glows with confidence, and has that x-factor ability to glide through defences when he runs with the ball.
The Kerry legend has been as impressed with the young Mayo footballer’s attitude as he has his ability.
“The Kobe thing is a revelation, what he's done so far,” says Spillane. “The confidence of the young lad I'm amazed by.
“Because I was telling somebody lately, every team I played my first match with Templenoe, Kerry, St Brendan's College, the first kick I got I scored. What a great start to get. Kobe was the same, the first ball I think he shot a point.
“The goal, that was the confidence of a fella who's been there for 10 years. Into the far corner, across the goalie, it wasn't an easy shot.
“But I thought last week, there was one incident last week, we saw him winning the ball, but there was four defenders in front of him at one stage and he took them on. Four Armagh men, grizzled defenders, and he took them on and went past them.”
Kobe McDonald of Mayo leaves the field after his side's victory in the Allianz Football League Division 1 match between Monaghan and Mayo at St Tiernach's Park in Clones, Monaghan. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
Spillane seasons his compliment with some caution - it’s very early days yet for McDonald and the time to really prove himself will come if he’s named in a starting XV for a championship match.
“There's a big difference between coming on and starting,” says Spillane. “Coming on, the opponents are getting tired, the game is opening up a bit, and, like I said, with the new rules, you now have a platform for the skilled players to have the time and the space to produce their array of skills.
“And if the ball comes up quick enough, and it is with the transition with Mayo at the moment, they're kicking the ball, it's coming up quick, Kobe's getting the ball in space and he's doing the rest, no different than David (Clifford).
“Look, I still remember that day looking out here, the worst All-Ireland Final of all time two years ago, and the 29 fellas stuck inside of that corner, that final where the six full forwards between the two teams got the grand total of one point from play, and the seagull had things to himself all day over there in the other corner.
“But now it’s game now that's suited to Kobe, it's suited to the skilful players.
“Look, in Kerry, if you're good enough you’re old enough and you're given a chance.
“Mayo, the expectation, the pressure's a lot harder, probably because no All-Ireland in so long and Kobe is now the next great white hope but I'd say you could fill a book with the next great white hopes of Mayo football, there's one that arrives every 10 or 12 years and he's the next great white hope and he's going to take us over the finishing line."
When Spillane looks at how Mayo are developing under Andy Moran he sees them ticking a lot of boxes and reckons they’re good enough to win the Connacht Championship this year for the first time since 2021.
But when it comes to zeroing in on the biggest challenger to Kerry’s All-Ireland title, he points to one outstanding candidate, Jim McGuinness’ Donegal.
Finnbarr Roarty of Donegal makes his way out for the second half of the Allianz Football League Division 1 match between Armagh and Donegal at BOX-IT Athletic Grounds in Armagh. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile.
Last year’s All-Ireland Final defeat to Kerry was a painful one, and Spillane believes they’ve already shown this year they’ve learned some lessons from it.
“Jim had a go at all the critics, and I know probably I was one of them, but we were right!” says Spillane.
“I mean he tactically got caught out here in the All-Ireland Final last year. When he didn't man mark Paudie Clifford, that was an absolute no-brainer.
“The second thing was that the deep block zonal defending for that Kerry point before half-time.
“They changed the hooter system because of that but the reason why it was a bit of a joke of two minutes of possession was because Donegal never came out and engaged. There was no tackling.
“But what I see in Donegal, Donegal are evolving. There was one incident last week where they had three or four, fellas, three or four cornerbacks, cornered into a corner, like there was that full-on press.
"And they're man-marking. Here’s a good one, Finbarr Roarty. So, against Mayo, suddenly Finbarr Roarty is out on Ryan O'Donoghue. And then the next match, Finbarr Roarty is out on Oisín Conaty. And I'm saying, 'Ha ha, he's looking ahead, guess who's going to be marking Paudie Clifford in a couple of months' time!’
“Because the thing about having Finbarr Roarty out on a top player like that is he's running the game on his terms, he's driving forward, and he's forcing Ryan O'Donoghue and Oisín Conaty into places they don't want to be, retreating back, no different than many years ago when Gooch had to track Philly McMahon all the way up for minutes upon minutes in an All-Ireland Final. Philly was playing the game on his terms.
"So, Donegal are evolving, it's going to be an interesting All-Ireland championship, I'm looking forward to it.”
David Clifford of Kerry in action against Brendan McCole of Donegal during the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship final match between Kerry and Donegal at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Seb Daly/Sportsfile.
Spillane is convinced that much of what Jim McGuiness is doing now in terms of tactics is with an eye on the likely challenge of playing Kerry at the business end of the championship, and that Jack O’Connor is paying the Ulster county a similar compliment.
“It plays both ways because the three blind men of Alabama knew David Clifford wasn't going to Donegal to play in the league game, it was the worst kept secret in the parish," he says.
“I was in the steam room on the Wednesday and (was told) ‘Clifford isn’t going to Donegal!'
“Jack wasn’t going to leave Jimmy McGuinness have a look at how does Clifford operate.
“I was 70 in December and we went as a family to Nashville and while we were in Nashville Inter Miami were playing Nashville.
“I went to see Messi playing and I just watched him for the entire game and the longer I looked at Messi playing, it was like looking at David Clifford.
“He was standing around, walking around, scanning, scanning, scanning, scanning, scanning, scanning and after 20 minutes ‘whoosh!’ He scored a goal!
“And I was just thinking back before half-time in the All-Ireland Final and you watched Clifford and he was standing on the sideline, McCole was there and the ball was over there and the next minute he was gone and it was a two pointer!”
As an Ambassador for Comfort Keepers, Spillane will be visiting people who avail of the homecare service in the coming weeks to chat about Gaelic games.
Safe to say he’ll make for good company.
