Anyone watching the pre-match debate?
It was terrible. Childish and spiteful.
They are all talking nonsense of different shades and getting so deep into talking "tactics" the average punter would be totally lost.

BIG SACKS (Tyrone) - Posts: 1681 - 12/07/2015 14:00:56    1751757

Kevin McStay comes across as quite pro Dublin in my own opinion.

Can he not see Dublin are not at their best because Westmeath haven't allowed them.

THE_SNAPPER (Louth) - Posts: 2019 - 12/07/2015 14:38:35    1751772

They should have been doing in dept analysis of where Westmeath players needed to be set up to have a proper organised blanket defebce which they keep talking about. At half time Spillane said its an awful game, what did you want? If Westmeath went out and played man to man the game would have been over after 10 minutes. To be honest I'm starting to enjoy watching the Sky Pundits. They analyze the tactical side and show player positioning etc instead of this cliche nonsense on Rte

PoppinPoints (Meath) - Posts: 225 - 12/07/2015 15:20:20    1751788

They're not all bad, but there are a number of pundits on the Sunday Game clearly there to cause controversy and others who just talk jibberish, without offering enough considered analysis. I'd love the RTE to get Jim McGuinness on board. His opinions on just about any subject always seem well thought out and clear enough for everyone to understand. He would make a great addition to the panel, and would blow any ridiculous comments from the other panelists out of the water.

Ballboy (Dublin) - Posts: 88 - 12/07/2015 15:29:49    1751797

You would never hear a Tyrone fellow saying anything if it was Mulligan in the chair

4KHDoneill (Derry) - Posts: 182 - 12/07/2015 17:36:20    1751874

Hurling boys are way ahead of the football lads on the Sunday game

Pharmstrong (Kildare) - Posts: 29 - 12/07/2015 18:23:42    1751945

it's amazing how many times Brolly uses the word "Donegal" during analysis of games that don't envovle Donegal.

The live Sunday game rarely discuss the game that they are watching but instead get involved in a broader discussion on the state of the game, structure of the championship, How Donegal would play against the teams who have just played etc etc. It's pathetic. They cannot accept that Dublin are a very good team and that it's actually OK for them to win all their games in Leinsten quite easily. This is not a crime. This is the provincial championships like it or lump it.

s goldrick (Cavan) - Posts: 5518 - 12/07/2015 18:56:37    1751975

To be fair to the pundits it was a hard job to concentrate on such a one sided affair. This is not Dublin's fault but this was awful tv. I know it's not possible but RTE would have better served if they could have shown Tyrone v Meath, Fermanagh v Roscommon or Armagh v Galway.

Byanthon (Tyrone) - Posts: 1780 - 12/07/2015 19:25:42    1752010

I thought that Joe Brolly was very negative on the Sunday game last night. In contrast Ciaran Whelan was excellent. Not just saying that because he was full of praise for Kildare's performance against Cork. I like his contributions and his analysis every week. Sound man.

lilywhite1 (Kildare) - Posts: 2989 - 27/07/2015 15:13:17    1759770

Ciaran Whelan is very good. You could see him talking about Kildare last night and Brolly wanting to let loose....
Worse though was Sean Og's yearly rant about Cork GAA....coming from one of the strike leaders.

yew_tree (Mayo) - Posts: 11227 - 27/07/2015 15:16:30    1759774

Yeah Joe was irritating trying to get his point across and interupting Whelan all the time who atleast was offering some proper analysis.

Dubsfan28 (Dublin) - Posts: 2509 - 27/07/2015 15:26:25    1759781

Donal Og? I agree with you. Ðes Cahill made the mistake of allowing him an open mic to bash people who weren't there to defend themselves. What Cahill should have done was to challenge him about the failure of the sweeper against Galway as Donal Og had been lauding it in previous Cork wins. He should also have asked him what he is doing at ground level in Cork to improve things for youngsters. And even ask him why JBM saw fit to get rid of him.

westisthebest (Galway) - Posts: 444 - 27/07/2015 15:29:12    1759783

Or Donal Óg even!

bumpernut (Antrim) - Posts: 1852 - 27/07/2015 15:33:18    1759786

Eamonn O'Hara is very hard to listen to

sxckev (Mayo) - Posts: 211 - 27/07/2015 15:35:10    1759789

Never mind that, the coverage last night was shocking. No coverage of the Penalty incident in the Fermanagh game. One of the biggest talking points yet they didn't see it. Does anyone else think Hughes is being lined up for the AI final?

gotmilk (Fermanagh) - Posts: 4971 - 27/07/2015 15:38:29    1759793

The Sunday Game is not a political forum for Cork G.A.A. and its problems. But boy do Cork G.A.A. and its politics/structures have problems! People should keep an open mind about the strikes too and not just assume that it was a load of prima donnas behaving like overpaid soccer players and wielding 'player power'. It wasn't. There was a VERY good reason for those strikes.

findra (Cork) - Posts: 40 - 27/07/2015 15:39:39    1759796

Ciaran Whelan is the best (actually he is the ONLY good football analyst in my opinion). However last night I think was not the best.

First of all I am not going to say that Cork defended well on Saturday. They conceded 1-21 and that tells its own story.

The clip the lads picked to illustrate was not a good one. Kildare passed the ball 27 times in the Cork half and no Cork player touched them. This was perfect defending though, they didn't foul, they were not overly stretched and eventually they forced Kildare to shoot from a bad position and turnover the ball.

There were plenty of things they could have said about Cork but that one clip that they did pick was the best bit of football defending all year. No foul given away, forcing a team into shooting from a bad position etc.It was almsot perfect. It was our best bit of play all evening. Any other clip that they could have shown would have been worse that that.

bennybunny (Cork) - Posts: 3917 - 27/07/2015 15:44:14    1759801

Donal Og overstepped the mark last night. I like him. I respect him. If the Cork county board appointed him as coach to the senior team, I would welcome him with open arms. They never will and he knows that they dislike him strongly so he has his forum to take pot shots at him. It is wrong and embarrassing. His figures are bland and do not tell the whole story either.

Agree with Findra as well though.

bennybunny (Cork) - Posts: 3917 - 27/07/2015 15:48:38    1759806

bennybunny,

I normally agree with your posts, very sensible. I don't say a lot on football as I don't know a lot about the sport to be honest.

But I didn't think the defending was good. Kerry or Dublin in that position would not allow the ball a net forward gain of that many yards. Their defenders would be in the attackers faces and would be hitting hard. Cork didn't do that, but I do agree they forced a shot from wide & no score came out of it.

Whelan is a good pundit. He looks like Adam West from that Batman series of yesteryear and his voice is lower pitched than the always excitable Joe Brolly. But he is down to earth, passionate about the game without it spilling over like it does with Joe.

slayer (Limerick) - Posts: 6480 - 27/07/2015 15:52:05    1759811

Ciaran wheelan is a very good pundit in fairness but joe brolly needs to be got rid of, Kerry weren't playing the weekend and brolly managed to mention us at least 20 times ffs get over it joe, Hughes gave the peno and cork still had 20 mins to win the game it's not like it was a last minute penalty. Joe is very nervous of Kerry this year and of that I am very happy. But his anti Kerry biased is gone beyond a joke at this stage.

KingdomBoy1 (Kerry) - Posts: 14092 - 27/07/2015 15:59:38    1759820