McMahon says GAA need to target online abuse of players

Philly McMahon was sitting in the reception area of his gym a while back when a woman walked in and got chatting. Not unexpectedly, Dublin football came up and, as night follows day, so did the defeat to Mayo in last year’s All-Ireland semi-final. A pity, they both agreed. But sure everything comes to its end.

“And she says, ‘I hear it was bad in the changing room,’” McMahon says now, laughing as he recalls the encounter. “’I hear there was fall-outs with Dessie and everything.’ And I’m looking at her and going, ‘You do know I’m a player? You know I was actually there?’ But she was convinced. She was trying to tell me that these things were after happening.

“I went, ‘No, there was none of that. I would have seen it’. And she just kept going, ‘No, it happened, it definitely happened!’ And I was like, ‘What are you on about, none of this is true!’

“So look, you get a lot of perception. The success Dublin have had over the years has created a sense of want, I suppose, in terms of more success. And once that hits a bit of a wobble, it’s easy for everyone to decide they know the reasons and excuses for it all.”

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McMahon looks at his old team now with the same mix of curiosity and bemusement as everyone else. If he was a few years younger, he would love to be in there still, facing the sort of challenge that, in their luxury, his group never really had to contend with. They were never bottom of the league after four games. They were never the lowest goalscoring team in the country. Back against the wall would be his kind of sandbox.

“I loved those league campaigns when we might have come back late and lost the odd game early on because we were just off our holiday or whatever and then you’d have to go up to Monaghan or something and get a result coming from behind. Those little character-building games are what this team needs now.

“Finding that one good result where afterwards they’re going, ‘You know what? The best part isn’t even the result, it’s working through it and finding a way.’ Because I would say in that Dublin camp now they’re talking a lot about adversity about what things need to be fixed, what are they going after. But sometimes that creates problems as well. It’s important to eradicate the adversity, spend about 10-15 per cent on that stuff and focus on the good stuff. That’s the sort of situation I would have loved.”

McMahon was doing a press round to promote the return of Darkness Into Light, in aid of Pieta House. In retirement, he has become more and more vocal on the level of online abuse aimed at GAA players, warning that the more of it we tolerate now, the less control we have over its consequences down the line.

A resilience

“I was very lucky to build up a resilience through playing for Ballymun Kickhams over the years. You got used to people abusing you, talking about where you’re from, talking about family members and stuff like that. We’re talking about Darkness Into Light here and how special that event is and how it can help people with suicidal distress and bereavement.

“And what I would highlight is that there’s a huge amount of people who will push negativity onto others to make themselves feel better. If there’s people jumping online and abusing players from other counties or abusing fans, it highlights that they’re searching for something to make them feel better by making others feel worse.

“That gives us an indication that this is not the way we should vent how we feel or how others make us feel. If I win a match, no matter what I’ve done to do it, it doesn’t give others the go ahead to abuse that person’s family members or that person’s community. It doesn’t. why should it? Why would you think it’s acceptable?

“The GAA is a great pillar of communities. It’s a great force to impact mental health, to be a focal point to be supportive in that area. Whereas if I put up a Tweet and someone jumps on it from another county and it’s abusive, it doesn’t really impact me personally. But what it would do is it gives young people from that county who see this abusive Tweet, it tells them that this is acceptable.

“And so they go and add to it and the culture comes around that says it’s okay to abuse Gaelic footballers online. It gets worse and worse from there. So I think it’s really something that the GAA needs to get a campaign behind and we need to try to change it in all counties. It’s like racism – Show Racism The Red Card in England and all that. That can be done here for online abuse. Before it gets worse and really affects somebody down the line.”

** The annual fundraising event organised by Pieta, who provide life-saving support services for those in suicidal distress and who have been bereaved through suicide, is back as the sun rises on Saturday May 7th, 2022.