Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
National
Michelle Cullen

Pat Spillane throws cheeky dig at Love Island's Jack Keating as he announces he's leaving The Sunday Game after 30 years

GAA pundit Pat Spillane threw a cheeky dig at Love Island's Jack Keating as he confirmed that this year's All-Ireland football final would be his last on The Sunday Game.

The former Kerry footballer and eight-time All-Ireland winner has appeared on the show for the past 30 years.

Announcing the news, he said: "It's a bit like Lanigan's ball, he stepped in, and I stepped out again.

READ MORE: Family of Love Island's Dami forced to take action after abuse over islander's behaviour

"I made my mind up a couple of months ago that this was going to be my last year working on The Sunday Game, so it's my last All Ireland semi-final I'll be covering and in two weeks' time, my last outing with The Sunday Game will be for the All Ireland final."

He added: "Look, I've had 30 years, 30 great years. Thirty years in any job or in any gig is a long time. I won't be going away completely because I will be writing still in the Sunday World for the next couple of years and still annoying people about GAA, and tomorrow morning actually, I'm going to explain why the reason why I left and why I chose this year to leave. But look, every dog has its day."

Speaking about what he will do next, Pat joked that he may end up in the Love Island villa.

He said: "I've had a brilliant time. I leave with no regrets and lots of great memories, and now I'm trying to figure out what to do next.

"Television? There's a vacancy on Love Island. Jack Keating is gone, so jeez, I couldn't do as bad as him.

"Social media is where it's at at the moment. I notice that the crowd making all the money are the influencers, so they tell me to become an influencer.

"You don't have to have any expertise, no qualifications and no knowledge, just plenty neck and loads of confidence, so I have that.

"So I'm looking forward to maybe a more relaxing time out of the pressure cooker of The Sunday Game. I'm looking forward to analysing, hopefully, two really exciting games over the next couple of weeks and maybe the icing on the cake, but there's a lot of water to run under the bridge yet, but maybe the icing on the cake would be perhaps next Sunday fortnight I will be leaving The Sunday Game at the same time as the Sam McGuire is returning home to Kerry."

READ NEXT:

Get breaking news to your inbox by signing up to our newsletter .

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.