By Micil Glennon
Former Dublin football captain Ciarán Whelan has labelled the latest chapter in the Seanie Johnston transfer saga an “embarrassment to the GAA”.
The Cavan man played less than a minute for Coill Dubh, an affiliate club of St Kevin’s in Staplestown, in the Kildare hurling championship and became eligible to play for the Lilywhites, although he played no part in today's loss to Meath.
Whelan, an analyst on RTÉ’s The Sunday Game Live, said: “It’s an embarrassment to the GAA...if he really wanted to play with Cavan, when Terry Hyland was appointed, why didn’t he go back?
“Last night makes a farce of the GAA rules. It took a democratic decision to go ahead with this last night. Kieran McGeeney obviously wants this guy, and would have sat down with his players [to discuss it].”
Former Derry player Joe Brolly added that the whole situation had brought shame on Kildare and that the usual pre-match banter was missing as he made his way into Croke Park today.
“Apart from anything else, they are making complete fools of themselves. Not a Kildare person said anything to me, they were all walking with their heads down – they should be ashamed of themselves because they’ve all been complicit in this,” said Brolly
"There’s hasn’t been a voice raised against this and I think it’s an absolute disgrace," he added.
“They might as well throw him in [as a sub against Meath], it can’t get anymore cringe worthy. It’s not right. There’s a fallacy going around that he was dropped by Cavan. [So] if anybody is dropped from any team do they transfer club or transfer county? The whole thing had to have been orchestrated.”
The RTÉ analyst’s criticism also extended to Johnston’s ability as a footballer: “He’s brilliant against bad teams. You want someone to score 2-10 in a friendly or to go out and play brilliantly against Antrim, they’ve got the very man.”
