Pat Spillane has recalled how GAA chiefs tried to have him removed from The Sunday Game in his early days with RTÉ.

The Kerry legend was a mainstay of the programme for 30 years, but sailed close to the wind with his criticism of Gaelic football.

 “The majority of games that I was watching were crap, and my views were sadly reflective of the dross in front of me. I was simply calling it as I saw it,” he wrote in The Sunday World.

“It’s gas to think now that in those early years the GAA powers-that-be during their contract negotiations with RTÉ demanded my removal from the panel because I was deemed to be too critical. Thankfully, RTÉ held firm.

Spillane added: “Isn’t it hilarious that in those days there was huge distrust between RTE and the GAA?

"Now we have an entirely changed tune. They paddle the same canoe with GAAGO. Sadly, from that infamous night on The Sunday Game when I branded parts of the Kerry-Tyrone game as ‘puke football’, football has gone downhill in the intervening 21 years.

"I have heard all the ageist barbs, reminding me how the game has changed, calling me a dinosaur. But evolution must be for the betterment of the game and sadly I don’t see any of that with Gaelic football coaching.”

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