Just because you may be braced for an incoming negative occurrence doesn’t make the impact thereof any easier to absorb when it does hit.
Trust me, as somebody who fell with walking aids and out of wheelchairs more times than I care to painfully remember, you can think you are as ready as you like, but when the BANG finally comes, you’ll be seeing stars like Foghorn Leghorn or Yosemite Sam for quite a while!
There was, of course, another example which could have been deployed here but context and perspective would deem it wholly inappropriate. A fairer reference point would be when you know your team is about to get beat or the horse you’ve punted on is nearer to the car park than the winning post, it’s still a kick in the guts.
And the following was too to a certain cohort. Even though it was completely misguided and ill-judged in this case. The ‘Woke’ dung being slung with abandon at the recent announcement that Kelly Cates (Dalglish), Gabby Logan and Mark Chapman are to collectively replace Gary Linekar as hosts of Match Of The Day.
Shockingly, but not surprisingly, the dung slinging has centred on the fact that two thirds of the new triumvirate ‘Only got the job because they were women’. Insulting bullsh*t. For one thing, both ladies have decades of experience in sports broadcasting in their own right and for another the are both daughters of arguably the best football people their respective countries have ever produced – Kenny Dalglish and Terry Yorath.
Focus on the latter point, though, unnecessarily detracts from the noteworthy achievements of both women in their own right. Logan – the wife of former Scotland rugby star Kenny – being adept at covering a variety of sports, while Cates stepped up to the plate admirably at Sky Sports. Going from touchline reporter/post match interviewer to anchor of Super Sunday, hosting a post game debate show which regrettably seems to have been culled and also having a slot on that other bastion of sports broadcasting – BBC Radio 5 live.
Mind you, the ironic thing, which honestly just occurred to me in the midst of production of this piece, is that Cates might never have got her ‘break’ in the industry if the same Woke brigade hadn’t been the instigation of Richard Keys and Andy Gray losing their jobs with BSkyB.
Yes, what the former dynamic duo said (off air) in relation to referee/lines person Sian Massey Harris was highly distasteful, but was it worthy of the Woke fraternity costing the two men their jobs? In my view, it had to be done, not just for equality’s sake, but as a merited acknowledgement of the increasingly prominent role women now play, not just in soccer, but sport in general.
In fact, it has been steadily on the increase for a lot longer than many might be willing to concede. Whether it be Laura Davies or Di Dougherty in golf, Nina Carberry, Katie Walsh, Cathy Gannon, Rachael Blackmore or Bryony Frost in horse racing, Joy Neville for rugby, Maggie Farrelly in our own GAA, Fallon Sherrock smashing the glass ceiling in the darting world or, the one which really caught me by surprise during during this sporting year, Pheobe Schecter in American Football.
Indeed, whatever about in soccer, closer to home I wouldn’t mind a small wager that it may not be long until you see a lady managing a male GAA team. Sure there’s nothing to say that the likes of Anna Geary or Ursula Jacob or Cora Staunton wouldn’t be every bit as good if not better than a man.
Moreover, as an addendum to the above, without knowing whether it would been permitted by rule or not, I remain convinced that if Dunboyne had brought on Vikki Wall or Emma Duggan or both in the Meath SFC Final of 2021, they would absolutely have won.
Besides all of the above though, the new broadcasting trio are bound to provide better entertainment value than Linekar who comes across as having the personality of a postage stamp.
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