Pat Spillane

Clifford and his colleagues could have a field day. I don't give Cork a prayer against Kerry...

Pat Spillane (born 1 December 1955), sports pundit and former Gaelic footballer, regarded as one of the greatest players of all time. He played Gaelic football with his local club Templenoe and was a member of the senior Kerry county team from 1975 until 1991. He received nine All Stars during a glittering career, a feat matched by no other Gaelic footballer. Since retiring he has developed a media career in analysing the game, and is known for his controversial views, particularly his distaste for the footballing philosophies of Donegal and Tyrone and every other team in Ulster. He has also been in receipt of his own stamp.

Quotes

• Clifford and his colleagues could have a field day. I don't give Cork a prayer against Kerry.
  • Headline of Spillane's preview of the 2020 Munster Senior Football Championship meeting between the counties. Cork won and knocked Kerry out of the Sam Maguire Cup, in a year when no qualifiers for the All-Ireland Senior Football Championship took place due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
• Original link / Secondary coverage

• Meath, like last year, won't be beaten by 16 points.
  • On RTÉ ahead of the 2020 Leinster Final. Meath lost by 21 points.

• Puke football.
  • Spillane on Tyrone's style of play. The team went on to win the 2003, 2005 and 2008 All-Irelands.
• RTÉ Television

• Shi'ite football.
  • Spillane on Donegal's style of play. The team went on to win the 2012 All-Ireland.
• Donegal Democrat

• There are people who go to the Hague for war crimes – I tell you this, some of the coaches nowadays should be up for crimes against Gaelic football.
  • Spillane on Jim McGuinness. His team won the 2012 All-Ireland.
• The Irish Times

• If I went to America and I went in to a big room and there was a thousand super models inside in that room, naked, all trying to seduce me, and if there was a pint of beer at the end of the room, I would go for the pint of beer. That's trust.
  • Defining his understanding of trust on The Late Late Show. Quoted in Hannigan, Mary. "Funny old games: The sporting year in a year like no other", The Irish Times. 30 December 2020. See section titled "Trust".

Quotes about Spillane

• And I was very annoyed to hear Pat Spillane going on about that again recently, saying that about this Sligo team, that we were waving to the crowd. Sure Pat Spillane was a great footballer, but he can be very insulting as well, to a lot of counties.
  • "Former Sligo captain sets the record straight". The Irish Times. 4 August 2007. Retrieved on 4 August 2007. 
• Barnes Murphy, following Sligo's 2007 Connacht Senior Football Championship win, on accusations (encouraged by Spillane) that Sligo were complacent in allowing the Kerry team featuring Spillane easily defeat them in the 1975 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship semi-final.