THE GAA CHAMPIONSHIP is upon us again and that can only mean one thing; overused and predictable clichés that we will hear throughout the summer.
The boys on the Sunday Game are amongst the worst culprits but fans will always be prone to commenting on something with the same tired sayings we’ve heard for many years.
1. “Would ya bend your feckin’ back”
Said any time a player attempts a fancy pick-up.
2. “They wanted it more”
When a slightly less fancied team wins a match.
3. “There won’t be a cow milked in….”
Whenever a team outside of the greater Dublin area wins a big game this old one will be used.
4. “Puke football”
If there’s a lot of hand-passes in a game someone will say this in the direction of Pat Spillane.
5. “The game is dying”
Said whenever there is an instance of this ‘puke football’.
6. “The game is not dying”
When two teams rack up a decent score in a game.
7. “Sure you could nearly play a reserve Dublin team”
One of the Sunday Game panellists will say this during their procession to another Leinster title.
8. “Looks like we’ll have to break out the brollys lads”
When there’s a hint of a dark cloud fans will look nervously for their umbrellas.
9. “That’s a hospital ball”
Give a hand-pass that goes over the recipient’s head, and it’ll likely be branded as that.
10. “You may as well be wearing a bloody [insert team name here] jersey ref!”
The most common phrase heard when a referee makes a poor decision.
11. “They’re in good form”
Win one game in the championship and it will be referred to as ‘good form’.
12. At the end of the day it’s still 15 men against 15 men
You’ll hear this when two teams taking each other on are miles apart in terms of quality.
13. “Put it in around the house”
When a team is losing by more than a point with time running out, the fans will call for route one football.
14. “Have ya heard about his younger brother, he’s supposed to be the best out of the three of them”
Whenever there are two brothers on a county team whose younger brother is still playing under-age, he will be hyped as the ‘next big thing’.
15. “You just cannot write Kerry/Dublin/Kilkenny/Tipperary off”
Not many write them off, but you’d swear they were massive underdogs sometimes.
16. “Had we been in Croke Park, Hawk-Eye could have given us an answer”
Marty Morrissey will let this one slip every time there’s confusion between umpires at any ground outside of HQ.
17. “If you could get him fit he’d do a job at full-forward”
A common remark about any player still carrying the Christmas weight
18. “Come on, we’ll beat the traffic”
With 10 points between the sides, any time within the last 10 minutes seems acceptable to leave and get a head start on other supporters