How awful are RTE's panellists?

[tetsujin1979]

aside from the "who's better/worse than everyone else" debate, is it just me or does Didi Hamann really look like Dominic Monaghan now??

[Spudulika]

You in dublin?

No, and now I realise that our region is cut off from Eurovision for some reason they can't explain properly other than - we don't have the rights. Bit mad. Had to endure UTV and BBC, as well as Australian and Yank coverage, have to say the Aussies were quite good - great point made by, I think he's Craig Foster, "Australians supporting Serbia who are supporting Serbia, it's better for Germany to equalise so that Australia have a chance to qualify." If you check message boards on Australian football the neanderthals went mental at him - not surprising since their grandparents were run out of ex-Yugo for all sorts. Shows how fragile Australia is.

[stojkovic]

On balance, all things considered, RTE is far superior to BBC and especially ITV.

Just listen to Adebayor, Keegan, Davids, Hansen, Dixon, Southgate, Shearer etc Woeful.

[bennocelt]

Jesus thought they were going to have a fight tonight. Dunphy V Souness. 100% agree with Souness. Dunphy was just trying to wind him up tonight.

[old git]

Jesus thought they were going to have a fight tonight. Dunphy V Souness. 100% agree with Souness. Dunphy was just trying to wind him up tonight.

yeah the same dunphy who not so long ago was mouthing off about player power at chelsea and big name players having the run of the club... terry / drogba / ballack etc and the obsene amounts amounts of money they earn , he fairly changed his tune tonight sticking up for the good upstanding proffesional players

[OwlsFan]

Only saw the last 15 minutes of the game and the panel discussion afterwards. Apparently it was the referee's fault that the Ivory Coast players tried to break two Brazilian legs because he didn't give handball for the 2nd goal?? Did the Ivory Coast players protest much after that one? As for Kaka's sending off, it looks to me as if he gave the player a dig in the stomach with the elbow. Not the face obviously like the IC player pretended. Souness thought he was sent off because of the protest of the IC players?? I assume it was because it was the linesman or 3rd official saw it. Dunphy thought that because it was Kaka he shouldn't have gotten a second yellow card. Kaka was obviously wound up and you could almost sense something was about to happen. Strangely, the only one I didn't see rolling around the place (and the Brazilians were as bad if not worse) was Droghba or did I miss that bit?

[bennocelt]

Funny thing is Kaka likes to dive a good bit himself.........................

[tetsujin1979]

FourFourTwo's Dublin blogger on RTE's coverage: http://fourfourtwo.com/blogs/worldcu...n-t-awful.aspx

[Noelys Guitar]

Dunphy predicted after the Brazil v North Korea match that North Korea would give Portugal and Ivory coast "a right run for their moneyl".

[tetsujin1979]

Dunphy predicated after the Brazil v North Korea match that North Korea would give Portugal and Ivory coast "a right run for their moneyl".

to be fair, it was only 1-0 and pretty even at half time. I didn't see the second half, but I'm guessing North Korea fell apart!

[OwlsFan]

to be fair, it was only 1-0 and pretty even at half time. I didn't see the second half, but I'm guessing North Korea fell apart!

I think you might be right.

As for your blogger friend, that's the view of one blogger quoting the usual cliches: Laughing Bill "feigns cluelessness and apathy" (how does he know that?). It looks pretty genuine to me. None of the panelists is " afraid to speak his mind and neither sits on the fence" (i.e. none of the panelists elsewhere has any opinion and never says anything is boring - this is patently untrue); all three, "have a genuine love for football, real passion that hasn't dwindled or been watered down throughout their combined 140 years in the game. That's what makes them so interesting and enjoyable to watch". Of course, the panelists on the other channels hate football. "They don't try to sell us anything and they don't make excuses for players or teams who aren't performing well enough. If a game has been cr*p they say so" Another great misconception. The other panels say the same thing except without the word cr*p and therein lies the difference. He then praises Apres Match. Can anyone actually tell the difference between the latter and the real thing because I think they have got them down to a t ?

And without wishing to harp back to my main point, no other TV station would have been allowed its panel poisonously to attack whatever incumbent national manager there was for the past 22 years without some sort of balance. Saipan apart, RTE never had that.

[osarusan]

I'm going out on a limb here OwlsFan, but I'm beginning to sense in you a slight distaste for the RTE panel and presenter.

[thischarmingman]

Wasn't sure where to put this, it's not RTE bashing, just something I found interesting:

Souness on England:

http://legendaire.wordpress.com/2010...re-in-trouble/

[Stuttgart88]

I watched RTE in my local in Kilburn tonight (Spain v Honduras). Far superior to UK analysis, not even close. Brady, Giles & Whelan, and good questions from Bill.

[bennocelt]

I watched RTE in my local in Kilburn tonight (Spain v Honduras). Far superior to UK analysis, not even close. Brady, Giles & Whelan, and good questions from Bill.

And Southgate shaking his head wondering where Iniesta was!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Charlie Darwin]

I thought Hamann was really good and the other panelists seemed to really take to him too. Ardiles also had a very good debut and it's good to have somebody in there with a background in a completely different footballing tradition.

[endabob1]

Turned on the Chile Switzerland game yesterday evening and Eoin Hand was doing the studio analysis bit for Supersport here in SA, unfortunately I missed the end of it so I didn't get to hear him but I thought it was a bit of an odd one. I'll look out for him in the future, I suspect he's only just joined up with them because I haven't seen him before

[Ciprian Marica]

Souness seems to be going on a bit of a solo run with this altitude lark. Haven't heard it from anyone else. Surely if this was the issue we'd have heard about it from the camp or from other commentators?

[bennocelt]

Turned on the Chile Switzerland game yesterday evening and Eoin Hand was doing the studio analysis bit for Supersport here in SA, unfortunately I missed the end of it so I didn't get to hear him but I thought it was a bit of an odd one. I'll look out for him in the future, I suspect he's only just joined up with them because I haven't seen him before

Didnt he play/manage in S Africa? Or am I completely wrong

[tetsujin1979]

he did manage in South Africa, read an interview with him before talking about how he used to have security escort him to games, and even to training, simply because he was a white man training black players