In a time where there is a striking lack of it, Pilkington's honesty in documentary hits a raw nerve everywhere

Straight talker: Johnny Pilkington’s candid observations gave a fascinating insight into a county player’s life in the 1980s

�INPHO/James Crombie

Straight talker: Johnny Pilkington’s candid observations gave a fascinating insight into a county player’s life in the 1980s

John Campbell

February 12 2021 10:05 AM

Just over three decades have elapsed since Antrim got the better of Offaly in that epic 1989 All-Ireland hurling championship semi-final - a match that was again highlighted when Offaly legend Johnny Pilkington was the subject of a fascinating 'Laochra Gael' series programme on TG4 within the past week.

If the match rekindled particularly warm memories for the Antrim players and their dedicated followers, it also underlined Pilkington's spectacular skills, in addition to another sublime virtue which he possesses that tends to be conspicuous by its absence within the GAA on occasions right now - honesty.

That being the case, the programme triggered a big reaction on social media, with Pilkington's candid observations earning huge plaudits.

In the current era when anecdotal evidence suggests that some county teams are breaching the collective training ban, managers' admissions relative to players' misdemeanours on the pitch are almost non-existent, the publication of 'dummy' teams in programmes is only beginning to be phased out and the disturbing scourge of increased cynicism in hurling has the 'denial' brigade up in arms, we are not short on controversial topics.

Indeed, while the forthcoming remote Annual Congress can debate only the motions which come before it, with several understandably having already been put on the long finger because of the current difficult circumstances, there is still the possibility that a proposal relative to combating cynicism in hurling might just find its way onto the agenda.

I would not be naïve enough to think that we might go back to the late '80's when Johnny Pilkington's championship pre-match routine would have been calculated to give present day bosses apoplexy.

"I always went for a couple of pints in the local," he recalls. "I wasn't going to be one of these lads to go off to some discreet pub somewhere.

"What it did, and what it helped me to do, was to take away the nervousness and butterflies. The three or four pints always gave you that good night's sleep you needed."

"Mind you, I had plenty of cause for drowning my sorrows after the Antrim game."

That Antrim team included the legendary 'Sambo' McNaughton, Dominic McKinley and Ciaran Barr, who is in the running to be the new chief executive of the new-look Gaelic Players' Association.

Pilkington's cavalier approach certainly did not impact adversely on his success ratio as he pocketed two All-Ireland medals, a National League honour and four Leinster gongs in Offaly's colours. And, just for good measure, he landed eight Offaly championship medals, six Leinster honours and four All-Ireland medals with his club Birr. There are many players out there who would enthusiastically drink to that little lot!

What a great pity that the tremendous advances which the GAA has made tend to be tarnished on occasions by a perceived lack of honesty.

Even while held in the vice-like tentacles of the horrific Covid-19 pandemic last year, the GAA, in the words of the indefatigable Ulster Council's Head of Operations Stephen McGeehan, "still managed to get its business done."

In doing so, the country's biggest sporting body provided more than ample evidence that it is capable of tackling grassroots issues which tend to be irksome, unseemly blotches on an otherwise impressive landscape when it puts its collective mind to it.

Such issues can serve to detract from the fact that the provincial and All-Ireland football championships were completed within a two-month spell, the men's and women's players' Associations united under one banner, Antrim hurlers captured the Joe McDonagh Cup and four new county team managements in Louth, Sligo, Antrim and Tyrone were confirmed within a fortnight - all, I might add, with the minimum of fuss.

The amalgamation of the men's and women's players' bodies means that 4,000-plus active participants in the various GAA codes are now united under the same banner, and this surely provides the GAA with a ready-made electorate to which it can turn if and when voting on important issues, particularly those affecting players, is required.

The GAA's Covid Advisory Group is due to meet again on Monday when it is expected to recommend a starting date for the new playing season to the powerful Management Committee while taking on board the fact that county team managers have been promised a minimum four-week preparation period leading into the Allianz League.

Given that there is still some time for reflection on the part of us all before a ball is kicked or a sliothair pucked, maybe we should resolve to take a leaf out of Johnny Pilkington's book.

Honesty is, after all, the best policy.

In a time where there is a striking lack of it, Pilkington's honesty in documentary hits a raw nerve everywhere

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