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The standard of punditry

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i always liked Davis Cue
no bias, fair and genuine
worst i ever saw was Finnerty on the hurling and McHugh on the football
toxic

Liamwalkinstown (Dublin) - Posts: 8166 - 27/05/2015 16:06:18    1729169

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I know he is more of a co commentator than a pundit but Martin Carney has to be up there with the worst of the worst. Even when he comes on Matt Coopers show on Today Fm he hasn't a clue whta he is talking about and very biased towards Mayo and Donegal.

Surely they could try and change that up a bit, he has been there for the past 20 years I think. Darragh Maloney has been a breath of fresh air in the main commentator box and is by far the best on RTE.

tyrooney (Tyrone) - Posts: 18 - 27/05/2015 16:29:58    1729183

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liamwalkinstown
County: Dublin
Posts: 6053

1729159
The Good -
Tomas, Wheelo, McStay, Tony Davis, Spillane
The Bad -
McHugh, Curran Cake,
The Ugly -
Brolly!


Bang on

JackoDub (Dublin) - Posts: 458 - 27/05/2015 16:38:20    1729185

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Every time i see Daragh Maloney i think im watching Jerry Springer.

cuederocket (Dublin) - Posts: 5084 - 27/05/2015 16:52:03    1729189

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Carney.........i forgot carney
jesus u couldnt be listening to him when Mayo or Donegal are playing
theres bias and then theres Martin Carney!
He'd give Aherlows Effin eddy a run for his money!!

Liamwalkinstown (Dublin) - Posts: 8166 - 27/05/2015 16:54:30    1729191

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I think that is harsh on carney. He looks at the positives for mayo because they never get much credit, he has often made that point. Maybe he can be biased too, but they are all to a man guilty of that. I like his positivity, you can hear his love for the game in his voice. He is well spoken too, which is probably why he gets the co-commentator role so often.

TheMaster (Mayo) - Posts: 16187 - 27/05/2015 17:25:36    1729204

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Matt Coopers frid GAA show isnt too taxing on the brain.A few minutes talk on the weekends big games and thats about it.Usually no nore than 15 mins.Very poor fare.It would be easy to do a good weekends preview of an hour.The show is nearly over before it starts.Declan Carr is particularly weak.

cuederocket (Dublin) - Posts: 5084 - 27/05/2015 17:50:03    1729212

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O'Rourke, Brolly and Spillane should all he got rid of, David Brady and Martin McHugh are also very poor. Tony Davis was good and gave smaller counties good analysis. Curran got a lot of abuse for not knowing players names but this is common among the more regular pundits who only know one players name in about 20 teams.

ros1 (Roscommon) - Posts: 1211 - 27/05/2015 21:05:25    1729280

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I agree that Tomas O Shea is brilliant. None biased with a huge interest and knows every player on every team. Tyrone and Kerry dominated the noughties and many of their star men have now retired. I am sure many would cherish a bash at punditry. There are star players from other teams Who may not have won All Irelands but who again would be very fair but have the flair. I feel its time for a change. Martin Carney has the voice and the quick brain but is very biased by times. You would want be itching to switch it off. Brolly and Spillane and Colm O Rourke have had their day but its passed. Tony Davis was good too and I still think Kevin mc Stay is brilliant. He is none biased and always gives a very honest opinion. If you had Tomas O Shea, Phillip Jordan and Ciaran Whelan or one of the Mortimors from Mayo or Dessie Dolan or lads from that era. it would be just brilliant. People would want to listen to those fellas. Theyre " with it ". Theyre just off the battlefield. theyre still full of the enthusiasm. The would bring a great freshness.

border Gael (Monaghan) - Posts: 894 - 27/05/2015 21:45:01    1729293

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I wasn't very impressed by Kevin McStay's comments about the Limerick footballers. Little more than a throwaway remark about morale being bad and they going nowhere. He had no idea of what he was talking about. If he's getting paid for contributions like that, he might at least go to the bother of finding out about how the match went and where Limerick and Clare are at the moment.

Prof Honeydew (Limerick) - Posts: 1110 - 27/05/2015 22:04:10    1729301

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The first thing I do while watching GAA on TV is at HT put on the tea/coffee and stretch my legs. The last thing I do is listen to some of the studio chat, Brolly and Spillane just rattle my brain, you'd need to do 100 push ups after listenign to them. While making a cup of tea I missed Brolly's comment about Marty Morrissey but heard his cringing apology, that was ugly. IMO the studio chat is over-rated, I prefer a good match summarizer I have a huge amount of time for Michael Duignan who tells it like it is, you might not like what he says but he is usually spot on, if he doesn't like what he is seeing he will say it. So yeah Sunday Game - the good, the bad and the ugly !!

arock (Dublin) - Posts: 4896 - 28/05/2015 08:23:46    1729306

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BBC guys are way ahead IMO . Brolly is his own downfall , he can actually analyse a match but then does something stupid . McHugh is the same , he makes silly points just to get attention , McHugh has a very intelligent football brain but continually let's himself down . Tomas O Se is good , Whelan is also decent . McStay really needs to cheer up a little . RTE clearly don't want to educate people with proper football analysis ; they're happy out with brief summaries !

TheRightStuff (Donegal) - Posts: 1688 - 28/05/2015 09:26:51    1729317

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I dont think their is a main problem with the RTE punditry.
I just think the 3 wise men have gone a bit stale , I do still like O Rourke but Brolly and Spillane intertwine between making some good points and making some outlandish crap remarks.

Its a bit like Tyrone and Donegal coming up against each other too often lately and the players know each other too well and resort to other means this year to get an upper hand against their opponent. In the same way I think that is the problem with Brolly and Spillane, where their remarks go from personal to just nonesense to get an upper hand.
I think brolly's personal attack on Paul Grimley a few years ago was just as bad as his Marty Morrissey comment.

Most of the hurling pundits have been with years too but they dont seem to want to hog the limelight and outdo one another and jsut discuss the match as it is.

woops (Kerry) - Posts: 2073 - 28/05/2015 09:38:34    1729320

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Im a bit of a caveman where this is concerned.
I find the rows quite entertaining.
I always cringe a bit when guys like Gary Neville talk about football like its a cross between chess and rocket science.

joncarter (Galway) - Posts: 2692 - 28/05/2015 10:24:44    1729349

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We should petition the RTE. Will it do any good? Unlikely. Carney is a joke. Brolly is bitter. So is ORourke, except he hides it well. Spillane is a dinosaur.

If we had Wheelan, Oshea and possibly Early in the studio, we would get some really good analysis and debate, without getting personal or without bias. AS it stands, we are facing another summer of very narrow and biased analysis.

Donegalman (None) - Posts: 3830 - 28/05/2015 11:16:28    1729376

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Is it really that hard for RTE to find an analyst(s) that will base their opinions on the game that they have just watched and not on some pre-conceived notion or mindset? How difficult can that be?

brendtheredhand (Tyrone) - Posts: 10897 - 28/05/2015 11:27:17    1729381

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Best by far is Duignan for the hurling. Also like to hear O'Grady, Donal Óg and Eddie Brennan. O'Shea in football is the best at the moment. The fact that he's recently retired gives him a familiarity with the requirements of the modern game, something lacking with Brolly, O'Rourke, Spillane etc. Whelan gives decent analysis but is hard to listen to and tends to go off track, maybe it's the fact he's from Raheny. McStay is still decent, probably focuses too much on the negative aspects/problems rather than positives. Carney is and always has been a poor analyst. Would like to see the likes of Parkinson, Dolan, McConville to name a few given a bit of TV time. I've heard Cian Ward and there's a Monaghan man who's name escapes me on local radio, both quite good. I'd keep Brolly if he could drop the BS he comes out with and concentrate on the games.

moylagh (Meath) - Posts: 484 - 28/05/2015 11:40:45    1729391

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RTE are awful at selecting pundits on all their live sports programmes. The lads on The Sunday Game Live are getting flack for being useless at the minute and I can't help but think that's the reason they'll be kept. Conspiracy theory or not I can't help but think that RTE would like to see figures for GAA drop to narrow the gap to other sports!!

Tir Conaill Abu (Donegal) - Posts: 1671 - 28/05/2015 11:53:14    1729394

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Why would a drop in GAA viewership automatically result in an increase in the viewership of other sports?
Besides, Dunphy, Brady and Giles arent exactly a whole lot better are they?

joncarter (Galway) - Posts: 2692 - 28/05/2015 12:41:48    1729434

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I didn't say it would lead to a rise in viewership of other sports. They would more likely watch it elsewhere, i.e. BBC or Sky Sports if you have access to it.

Tir Conaill Abu (Donegal) - Posts: 1671 - 28/05/2015 12:54:20    1729442

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