Joe Brolly: Derry don’t have firepower to be Sam contenders

Dublin’s Tom Lahiff tangles with Eoin McEvoy. Photo by David Fitzgerald/Sportsfile

Joe Brolly

Dublin’s opening two boring defeats in the league prompted me to ask the question, “Why won’t they kick the ball in to Con O’Callaghan?” For those games, he was a peripheral presence, tracking back and tackling round the middle third, taking a hand-pass at the last minute in a crowded defence.

What a waste. Like hiring the prize stallion from the stud and using him to give children donkey rides on the beach. Or asking Maradona to go in nets. I was chatting to his father and mother at a Gaza peace march in Dublin after the second league game and they were equally frustrated. “Why won’t they give him early ball?” I asked his dad. “No comment,” he said.