NEWS:What can be done about sledging? Not a lot, writes GAVIN CUMMISKEY

SPORTS LIKE cricket and baseball view sledging as an art form, but Gaelic games currently has an issue with psychological baiting.

But who can stop a man whispering into another man’s ear? And what harm can come of it? Granted, Multiple Miggs didn’t react so well to Hannibal Lector’s late night comments, an incident that was never even reviewed by the Central Competitions Control Committee.

“I don’t think anybody can do anything about it because how can you stop it?” asked Benny Coulter. “If it’s there and the referee doesn’t even know about it it’s impossible to stop it.”

The Armagh-Laois “storm in a teacup” has calmed. The “hysteria” passed.

There was, it turns out, no sectarian or racial abuse directed by a Laois player to Armagh captain Ciarán McKeever.

And McKeever didn’t kick anyone in retaliation.

So nothing happened.

We know this because we were told as much via official statements by the respective county boards and disciplinary arm of the GAA. The Central Hearings Committee exonerated McKeever despite the words written in referee Michael Duffy’s report.

Laois manager and former Armagh footballer Justin McNulty thinks we should let it lie. That was his general gist at the launch of the Kellog’s GAA Cúl camps in Croke Park yesterday.

“All I can say is that I’d have to commend my players and commend the Laois County Board in terms of their conduct throughout the almost hysteria. They took the oxygen out of the situation by not getting involved in it and they deserve commendation for that. As for the actual incident itself or the so-called incidents I’ve nothing to add on the matter.”

When pressed, McNulty added: “I’m from where I’m from and it’s not something that’s going to insult me. It’s like me calling someone (from Kerry) a Kerry langer. What’s the big deal here? That’s where you’re from so really I think it’s storm in a teacup. There’s no issue at play here.

“There’s been hysteria created out of something that’s not even that big and that’s not even a big issue – it’s not an issue.”

Coulter was also floating about the Ash Suite yesterday so we asked him about this non-issue. Down’s marquee forward these past 12 years has been a prime target for the venomous whispering from devilish corner backs. Interestingly, Benny has only taken abuse from neighbouring man markers. “In my experience it was in the Ulster championship. When I went out of that into the qualifiers it definitely wasn’t happening.”

Coulter terms the marking process as “trips.” And it is a journey; when one man follows another for 70 minutes, or less depending how things go, with the directly conflicting intentions. “You felt like turning around and driving someone. Obviously you can’t. It’s cleaned up a bit and it hasn’t happened this last couple of years.”

That’s the whole idea isn’t it; he wants you to retaliate physically so he can crumble to the turf as if struck by a machete.

“Yeah, that’s the thing.”

In recent years the evil shadows have grown tired of Coulter. What more can be said to the man? “Probably, I’m a bit more experienced. You’ve been on trips with different people. Probably these boys have wised up a bit to what they were at years ago. It hasn’t happened for a couple of years.”

Many a great GAA defender never uttered a single word. Páidi Ó Sé, for example, wrote in his autobiography that he rarely spoke to the forward he was tracking.

“If it’s still going on I’d definitely be pushing to stamp it out,” Coulter went on. “There was a lot of talk last year of players going out to intimidate whoever they are marking. There was a book out there this year and there was a bit I read in it where you were told to go out and intimidate whoever you are marking.

“I spoke to a few of the boys out in Australia about it and they felt the same. They were getting a bit of sledging too, the likes of Stevie McDonnell and Paddy Bradley and them boys.”

They are inventive little talkers, them corner backs, with their choice of words. “Aye, they are, sometime you will maybe get them back when you are retired and see them some time.”

Best response? Easy. “You try to just win the next ball and put it over the bar or in the back of the net. That’s what you try to do.”

But the teacup storm will always rage inside the white lines.

“Sometimes it might put you off and other days it might drive you on. It’s a two way thing. Some days it works, some days it doesn’t.”

So be ready for it.