Flannery on old Munster pal Quinlan: 'He hasn't got an iota of what we do in here'
Munster forwards coach Jerry Flannery has launched a stinging attack on Alan Quinlan, his former teammate with Ireland and the province, accusing Quinlan of delivering ill-informed media punditry.
Quinlan, who works for Sky Sports and Newstalk as a rugby analyst, was highly critical of Munster’s performance in the PRO14 victory over Zebre, leaving his old pal fuming.
Speaking on Sportsjoe.ie podcast The Hard Yards, Flannery insisted having played for Munster doesn’t give Quinlan any insight into what is currently going on with the province.
Flannery said: "People will watch it and say, 'Well Alan Quinlan must know what's going on at Munster because he played for them', but Alan Quinlan has absolutely no idea what's going on at Munster. Nothing. He hasn't got an iota of what we do in here."
Quinlan was appointed late to cover the Zebre game on Sky after Ieuan Evans became unavailable, and Flannery claims the Tipp man took no account of Munster’s long list of absentees for the fixture.
"We were missing this amount of players and you have to look at things in context of the game. I don't know whether he had done any preparation for it. I don't think he had.
"It didn't seem like he had because when people relayed the comments back to me, I just went, 'This doesn't make sense'.
"I understand that people will come out and give their opinion but their opinion should be based on something. If it's not based on preparation, well then they're actually not doing their job and they
should not be getting paid for it, in my opinion.
"Like, if I don't do my work as a coach I'm going to get sacked.
"If, for instance, Sky think that it's deemed credible that if someone has just played for a club that they can go out and just give their opinion without doing any work, well, they're kind of cheating the viewers. People are paying for their subscription to watch it and they want to get some sort of analysis or... if they're not getting it then there is a breakdown there."
Flannery insisted this was not a personal attack and acknowledged Quinlan was called up late to cover the game. But couldn’t resist a parting jibe about Quinlan’s other TV work.
Flannery said: "Look, sometimes it can be irritating when guys that were part of the club are doing that, you know. I don't know whether they see it as sort of an attachment to their time at the club or don't want to see the club move forward because then they're not seen in the same standing that they might have been... but that's a poor mindset to have, for my opinion."
"But, look, Quinny was very good on Ireland's Fittest Family. He's good at that stuff."
