Hussey admits ‘faceless’ social media accounts are providing challenges for intercounty players

Roscommon defender Conor Hussey has admitted that social media can provide challenges for intercounty players in the modern game.

Speaking at the launch of the Connacht Senior Football Championship at the province’s GAA Centre of Excellence in Bekan on Wednesday, the Michael Glaveys clubman feels that “faceless accounts” are becoming an increasing issue for the GAA to deal with.

“I suppose social media has its pros and cons. What would bug me sometimes would be the faceless accounts. I don’t mind people having an opinion. Everyone is entitled to an opinion, especially if they put their name to it. Sometimes you can see these faceless accounts and they can say nasty things.

“It could definitely affect players. Myself, personally I don’t think I have experienced it. Maybe I am not at that top level yet to get that much abuse. But I can see how it would be very tough without a doubt and sometimes you are just better staying away from the phone,” he felt.

In the aftermath of Roscommon’s recent defeat in Derry, manager Davy Burke labelled social media “toxic” following online commentary about an incident involving Cathal Heneghan and Kerry defender, Jason Foley, during a recent league game at Dr. Hyde Park. Heneghan has subsequently served a one-match ban, and Hussey, a club team-mate of Heneghan’s, feels that the matter is now closed.

“I wasn’t really actively looking to see what was being said about Cathal or anything like that. I just know that, in a general sense, it can be very hard.

“We are amateur players, and we play for the love of the game. We play because we enjoy the game. We want to become the best players that we can be and represent our county, but we probably don’t sign up to this side of things. 

"Everyone is entitled to an opinion. Everyone has an opinion about sport, life, politics — you name it — but what bugs me about it personally, and I haven’t been speaking about this with Cathal at all to be honest, but the faceless accounts annoy me.

“People saying nasty things, but they have no name and they have no face. It would irk me slightly. It is over. It is done now, and Cathal has moved on. We have moved on and it is time to get back to brass tax,” he explained.

Hussey admits that the days of simply moving away from the person in the corner of the pub and relocating elsewhere is now a thing of the past.

“It is funny that if you see some people on Twitter (now known as X) or other social media sites talking nonsense, in the past if those people were in the pub you would just walk away from them and nobody would listen to them. Nowadays they have this amplifier, and everyone has to see their opinions, so it can be tough.

“As I said, I wouldn’t be at the top level of the game in terms of the highest names so I wouldn’t be scrutinised as much as the higher-profile names might be.

“I can imagine the higher grade you go up, the more scrutiny you get. No two ways about it, it is difficult but the best way is to avoid it, and try not engage with it at all. I know some players can be searching for their names the odd time and stuff like that, but it is just better to avoid it in my opinion,” he concluded.