"We don't have ice flowing through us. We all have blood flowing through us. We're all loyal to our own counties whether we like it or not, that is a natural instinctive thing within us all. Now, I was critical of Dublin the other night and I've come under fire from some Dublin supporters who felt I didn't defend them enough and then we have the other end of the scale where people feel I went soft on them."
That was The Sunday Game analyst and former Dublin captain Ciaran Whelan on Off The Ball tonight as he joined us to discuss the flak he has been getting from certain quarters about perceived bias in his analysis of controversial disciplinary incidents in the semi-final against Mayo on Sunday.
One of those incidents, for example, was an incident in which Dublin's Jonny Cooper was fortunate to avoid a red card with Whelan saying that it was not in the Dublin player's nature in his TV analysis.
Whelan reiterated that it was not in the player's nature but also re-emphasised that his late and high tackle on Mayo's Diarmuid O'Connor was a bad one and deserving of a red card.
"I could have sat back and said nothing and let one of the other lads take it. But I said it was a bad tackle, red card. But it wasn't in his nature," Whelan stated, while he also debated the merits of the Denis Bastick black card as well as another controversial incident involving Bastick's Dublin colleague Philly McMahon.
Whelan also explained why he had called for Tyrone's Tiernan McCann to apologise for his dive against Monaghan.
"Maybe I was wrong and maybe it was too far to go to get someone to apologise but I've explained to you where I was coming from in that regard, coming from his perspective that it's better for him. He ended up staying silent on the whole thing. I felt from him, as a young player, he would have been better off saying 'you know what? It was wrong'. People would have moved on quicker. That was the angle I was coming at. I wasn't looking for him to declare a big apology."
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