WatchLOI

[Straightstory]

Ah I don't know, i used to love to 2 biased as f*ck lads who did saints TV, (pats lads will know them) while everything was a free to Pats, they were good entertainment, and I'd prefer them to yer one Madigan anytime
I don't disagree. Some commentators I listened to last year had a certain 'winning charm' about them. I think anything is preferable to the dreadful mid-Atlantic sounding, bland, over-excited, robotic, personality-free slickness of Conor MacNamara, who represents everything I dislike about modern commentators.

[Dalymountrower]

Ah I don't know, i used to love to 2 biased as f*ck lads who did saints TV, (pats lads will know them) while everything was a free to Pats, they were good entertainment, and I'd prefer them to yer one Madigan anytime

Madigan seemed to be disinterested in the game and had some woeful howlers about players names and some of the fundamentals of the game. However with Paddy Kavanagh along side her for the Bohs v Dundalk match she was greatly improved . Paddy`s " get in" for every Bohs goal and his frank comments "Dundalk are all over the shop" and " that was brutal" seemed to get her interested and engaged and she did a fairly good job. The usual Bohs commentator could well be a "professional " broadcaster, so lots of factoids but no passion.

[forza]

Madigan seemed to be disinterested in the game and had some woeful howlers about players names and some of the fundamentals of the game. However with Paddy Kavanagh along side her for the Bohs v Dundalk match she was greatly improved . Paddy`s " get in" for every Bohs goal and his frank comments "Dundalk are all over the shop" and " that was brutal" seemed to get her interested and engaged and she did a fairly good job. The usual Bohs commentator could well be a "professional " broadcaster, so lots of factoids but no passion.

Her Pats and Bohs performance was easily the worst commentary that I ever heard on a League of Ireland game.

[2 Year Contract]

If only someone wrote down all the commentary mishaps there was on WatchLOI, would be an entertaining read.

One of the most recent ones that springs to mind was Pats v Dundalk last week after Sam Bone's own goal, it was said that Pats were on the other end of an own goal having benefitted from Lee Desmond's own goal (it was Roberto Lopes) which gave them the lead in Tallaght in the opening game of the season.

[SeanDrog]

Drogs usually had Fabio o Brien or Mick Cooke as co commentators and there knowledge about the players and league really shone through and added to the matches. Thumbs up from me.

[Dalymountrower]

If only someone wrote down all the commentary mishaps there was on WatchLOI, would be an entertaining read.

One of the most recent ones that springs to mind was Pats v Dundalk last week after Sam Bone's own goal, it was said that Pats were on the other end of an own goal having benefitted from Lee Desmond's own goal (it was Roberto Lopes) which gave them the lead in Tallaght in the opening game of the season.

Some of Ms Madigans footballing terms word salad was pretty hilarious, she also routinely got players names wrong, eg "Keith Ward and his namesake Andre!". My favourite was from some male commentator talking about Bohs winger Liam Burt " He has very small feet for a ( very long pause) .... winger"

[Straightstory]

Not Watch LOI, but I enjoyed Daragh Moloney's comment yesterday during a rare first-half passage of good play from Ireland: 'they're making Andorra look ordinary'.

[D24Saint]

Her Pats and Bohs performance was easily the worst commentary that I ever heard on a League of Ireland game.

My favourite was “Georgie Kelly has been faultless today” when he missed a penalty earlier in the game. Looking forward to the new service, watchloi did a decent job but never excelled.

[Straightstory]

Ms Madigan again (after Austria v North Macedonia) "It's goodbye from Budapest". The game was in Bucharest. (And I presume she's not in either place - but in a studio in Montrose).

[Longfordian]

I turned the sound off as soon as I heard who was commentating. She is dreadful.

[D24Saint]

Ms Madigan again (after Austria v North Macedonia) "It's goodbye from Budapest". The game was in Bucharest. (And I presume she's not in either place - but in a studio in Montrose).

I am watching the BBC for this tournament. I think RTÉ has gone dreadful and the PC nonsense makes things worse.

[Dalymountrower]

I am watching the BBC for this tournament. I think RTÉ has gone dreadful and the PC nonsense makes things worse.
What PC nonsense?
BBC commentary teams have been awful, but in keeping with the flag waving populism that has the adjacent Island in its grip.

[Nah Nah Nah Nah]

Not as funny as Stephen Alkin calling it the Jordi Cruyff arena

[Longfordian]

I heard that as well. Ridiculous.

[pineapple stu]

Morten Wieghorst was playing for Holland too, despite being Danish and 50. He meant Wout Weghorst. That annoyed me more than it should have!

[D24Saint]

What PC nonsense?
BBC commentary teams have been awful, but in keeping with the flag waving populism that has the adjacent Island in its grip.

RTE having a female commentator to say they have a female commentator to tick a box. When she clearly isn't a commentator. I've no issues with equal opportunity's as Lisa Fallon talks a lot of sense as a pundit, much more than her male counterparts. It should be based on merit not box ticking.

[Dalymountrower]

RTE having a female commentator to say they have a female commentator to tick a box. When she clearly isn't a commentator. I've no issues with equal opportunity's as Lisa Fallon talks a lot of sense as a pundit, much more than her male counterparts. It should be based on merit not box ticking.

Siobhan Madigan ahead of Ger Canning any day of the week on merit.Anyone ahead of Marty Morrissey on merit.
I dont agree that giving opportunities to female commentators is box ticking or "PC".

[Eminence Grise]

RTE having a female commentator to say they have a female commentator to tick a box. When she clearly isn't a commentator. I've no issues with equal opportunity's as Lisa Fallon talks a lot of sense as a pundit, much more than her male counterparts. It should be based on merit not box ticking.

Did it ever occur to you, D24, that RTE isn’t exactly awash with good commentators? Madigan is bland and anodyne and fact-shy, but that makes her at least as good as Alkin, who has the same, eh, qualities. As for Ger Canning and Marty Morrissey – I’d rather rub raw chilis in my eyes than listen to them. I'd have Madigan any day of the week over that pair. So that leaves George Hamilton - one out of five up for the job. Maybe the meritocracy should extend to contracting out to professional commentators for tournaments once the staffers are finally pensioned off?

[Nesta99]

RTE may not have directly employed commentators with a load of quality, but in the way that they have local indie journalists submit match reports to RTE.IE, they could do the same for commentators especially for online coverage. Ones that show good ability could be retained for wider coverage rather than just local games. Plenty of decent regional radio commentators like Adrian Taaffe at LMFM. RTE using GAA commentators for football never really worked, Dundork and Morrisey mustnt be too far off retirement in general anyway so a new generation of commentators need blooding and GAA and LoI online coverage would be a good way to do it imo.

[D24Saint]

Did it ever occur to you, D24, that RTE isn’t exactly awash with good commentators? Madigan is bland and anodyne and fact-shy, but that makes her at least as good as Alkin, who has the same, eh, qualities. As for Ger Canning and Marty Morrissey – I’d rather rub raw chilis in my eyes than listen to them. I'd have Madigan any day of the week over that pair. So that leaves George Hamilton - one out of five up for the job. Maybe the meritocracy should extend to contracting out to professional commentators for tournaments once the staffers are finally pensioned off?

I see your point. I don’t mind Ger Canning for GAA but he should stay clear of football. It looks like the golden days of Brian Moore & John Motson are gone from the game. The quality of sports commentators has done down across the board can’t think of one I really like off hand , the chap on virgin media maybe Ive warmed to him lately.

[El-Pietro]

I see your point. I don’t mind Ger Canning for GAA but he should stay clear of football. It looks like the golden days of Brian Moore & John Motson are gone from the game. The quality of sports commentators has done down across the board can’t think of one I really like off hand , the chap on virgin media maybe Ive warmed to him lately.

Porbably because there was only 1 or 2 games a week broadcast. Nowadays every game seems to have some degree of coverage and outside of the top few percent you will get lower quality by default.

[Eminence Grise]

I see your point. I don’t mind Ger Canning for GAA but he should stay clear of football. It looks like the golden days of Brian Moore & John Motson are gone from the game. The quality of sports commentators has done down across the board can’t think of one I really like off hand , the chap on virgin media maybe Ive warmed to him lately.

Yeah, it's hard get that Moore and Motson quality alright - Jimmy Magee for another M. Nesta's point about using local stringers might sound plausible but with no offence to, say, Sligo v Finn Harps, the pace of the game and the production values (stats, research, size of the OB team) is far below international commentary standards so what sounds good on Highland FM or Ocean FM soon gets found out on a national broadcaster.

I think the RTE sports department generally speaking is dreadfully weak, bar a few stand-outs. I don't know what kind of training - if any - they get once they're inside, but being a brilliant sports journalist does not automatically make you a decent commentator, and if you're only competent to begin with, well... One of RTE's big failings over the years has been keeping square pegs in round holes instead of acting like a talent generator -find them cheap, train them up, lose them to Sky, rinse and repeat. It keeps the the line-up fresh and encourages people to up their game instead of mouldering away as a staffer till retirement. When was the last time, for instance, you heard of any RTE star leaving to join a bigger broadcaster?

[Nesta99]

Oh I agreee EG, I was thinking along the lines of your latter point, its a sort of apprenticeship and then pinch the better ones to broaden the panel especially for when there are major tournaments and Olympics on and all the top commentators are deployed there. Leaving us with the best of the rest and GAA people to cover the home front. Commentators that have started out on radio, manage to give a 'picture' of the game and keep people interested, well its the best sort of training. Let co-commentators do the stats, insights, analysis, though you do need sense of a connection between them too. Jonathan Pearce is a bit marmite in the UK, I like him and his enthusiasm and he started off with radio, then Channel 5 games, Womens' coverage and is now mainstream along with the less high profile stuff. He commentated a few hockey games during the 2012 Olympics and basically said live he needed the expertise beside him and it worked. There are go to commentators for everything at RTE so a bit like a football team they need some more strength in depth...

[Martinho II]

No wonder Eamon Dunphy went mad at RTE when he was asked about his former employers last week at Paddy Power event in Carlisle. He said that the match day analysis is very poor. I have switched over to the BBC in protest.

[pineapple stu]

I wouldn't take heed of much that Dunphy says to be honest.

BBC analysis is generally very bland.

[D24Saint]

I wouldn't take heed of much that Dunphy says to be honest.

BBC analysis is generally very bland.

It tends to be more entertaining though as they have better banter between the panel. I find their coverage a lot more polished than RTÉ, bigger budget admittedly.

[total hoofball]

No wonder Eamon Dunphy went mad at RTE when he was asked about his former employers last week at Paddy Power event in Carlisle. He said that the match day analysis is very poor. I have switched over to the BBC in protest.
Are Alex Scott or Rio Ferdinand any better than the pundits on RTÉ?? I very much think not

[Longfordian]

Des Curran is doing a good job tonight. I always thought he was decent.

[D24Saint]

Des Curran is doing a good job tonight. I always thought he was decent.

Yeah he is a very good commentator he didn’t come to mind earlier. I think he is very good , he has a very easing going patter.

[Nesta99]

I wouldn't take heed of much that Dunphy says to be honest.

BBC analysis is generally very bland.

Its changed just a bit now with Dunphy, Brady, Giles, gone but a few times in bars in England BBC coverage was on the box but at HT and FT the channel was switched to RTE analysis. Not totally sure if that was for entertainment reasons of for analysis value.

Stephen Kelly doesnt work as a co-commentator imo yet gets plenty of work. Duff, Cunningham and Sadlier do a good job and yup better than Ferdinand or the wannabe comedian Ian Wright on respective channels. BBC punditry is very stiff upper lipped British.

[Charlie Darwin]

I am watching the BBC for this tournament. I think RTÉ has gone dreadful and the PC nonsense makes things worse.
I assumed they all use Macs these days.

[Charlie Darwin]

RTE having a female commentator to say they have a female commentator to tick a box. When she clearly isn't a commentator. I've no issues with equal opportunity's as Lisa Fallon talks a lot of sense as a pundit, much more than her male counterparts. It should be based on merit not box ticking.
She's not there because she's female. She's there because she's an RTE employee and they don't have a million commentators. There are better female commentators around in my opinion but she's a staffer so will obviously get the bigger gigs.

And, like Ger Canning, football is not her sport. Take issue with RTE assigning GAA commentators to football by all means, but I think it's a bit disrespectful to suggest she or any other woman has her job due to box-ticking.

[Mr A]

Dunphy is some pup to be criticizing the analysis. He was lazy and traded on the laud the manager and then blame the manager shtick over and over again while often being very unprepared (and on occasion at least literally drunk). When Noel King was in charge for about 48 hours it was hilarious to watch him cram the whole process into that time. There was a time when Giles, Dunphy and Brady was a decent combo (O Herlihy was brilliant at orchestrating them too for what it's worth) but it got very tired a long long time before they finished.

[Mr A]

Of course I should also add that when I commentated for Finn Harps radio I was generally unprepared, regularly somewhat tanked, started chants, howled at officials and opposition players (on one occasion my mum rang me after to see what he had done) and when things were going badly would descend into extended periods of sullen silence. And the language was reprehensible. The tagline was "Turning the Air Blue" and by jeepers we delivered.

Damn I miss it all the same.

[Straightstory]

It tends to be more entertaining though as they have better banter between the panel. I find their coverage a lot more polished than RTÉ, bigger budget admittedly.
I strongly disagree. They're like some boorish half-wits down the pub who think Mrs Brown's Boys is the funniest thing on television. Micah Richards seems to have been employed by the BBC soley because he will laugh uproariously at literally anything. The last thing I want to see from ex-footballers on TV is 'banter'.

[Calcio Jack]

Dunphy is some pup to be criticizing the analysis. He was lazy and traded on the laud the manager and then blame the manager shtick over and over again while often being very unprepared (and on occasion at least literally drunk). When Noel King was in charge for about 48 hours it was hilarious to watch him cram the whole process into that time. There was a time when Giles, Dunphy and Brady was a decent combo (O Herlihy was brilliant at orchestrating them too for what it's worth) but it got very tired a long long time before they finished.

I always thought Dunphy was a genius in the way he played the role of ‘court jester/fool’ to Giles and Brady’s King Lear and Richard III

[D24Saint]

I always thought Dunphy was a genius in the way he played the role of ‘court jester/fool’ to Giles and Brady’s King Lear and Richard III

:) Ha I think some of the football played in landsowne road over the years would make bosworth field seem like a playground.

[Eminence Grise]

I always thought Dunphy was a genius in the way he played the role of ‘court jester/fool’ to Giles and Brady’s King Lear and Richard III


RTE analyst - 'Deep insights into the lad's psychology there.'
BBC analyst - 'Richard the Fird? So that's what gave 'im the 'ump. Wa-ha-ha.'

Even though it's taken a while for me to warm to the new generation of RTE panellists, they're invariably light years ahead of the Beeb.

[placid casual]

What's the story with duff though?
He appears to be desperate to push an agenda no matter what or who he's talking about.
To paraphrase The Smiths it would seem "He holds more grudges than lonely high court judges"..

[Mr A]

I always thought Dunphy was a genius in the way he played the role of ‘court jester/fool’ to Giles and Brady’s King Lear and Richard III

The guy made so much money out of Irish football, and instead of pushing for change he played the controversial clown and any time he did try to address real issues got them hideously, disastrously wrong. Total fraud, a cancerous boil on the bum of Irish football.

[D24Saint]

The guy made so much money out of Irish football, and instead of pushing for change he played the controversial clown and any time he did try to address real issues got them hideously, disastrously wrong. Total fraud, a cancerous boil on the bum of Irish football.

You would just loved to hate him and it made for some completing TV.

[Tomas]

Is there any chance to watch LOI games from abroad? Watched Dundalk v Derry the other night but no option to see other duels. So is it just a single game live on matchday or can I have a choice of any game? Here in Slovakia, all 6 weekend matches are shown live (until next season where you need to pay about 5eur a month for all top division games).

[Charlie Darwin]

If you have a six-month subscription you should be able to see all the games.

[nigel-harps1954]

Is there any chance to watch LOI games from abroad? Watched Dundalk v Derry the other night but no option to see other duels. So is it just a single game live on matchday or can I have a choice of any game? Here in Slovakia, all 6 weekend matches are shown live (until next season where you need to pay about 5eur a month for all top division games).

Go to LOITV.ie and click 'Subscribe' at the top of the page. It will give you two options, Premier Division Pass for the rest of the season for €79, or First Division Pass for €49

[TonyD]

Jonathan Pearce is a bit marmite in the UK, I like him and his enthusiasm ..

Once saw him brilliantly described in When Saturday Comes as “the deeply unwelcome Jonathon Pearce” which sums up my feelings about him. Clive Tyldsley is another who I could never stand.

I agree re Des Curran, I think he’s very good, and I’d be more than happy to see him get top spot in RTE instead of “Danger Here”.

[Straightstory]

I've been generally impressed by LOI TV. They have more cameras than Watch LOI TV had, and (blessed relief), replays. However the quality of the picture from Longford on Saturday evening was terrible: jerky and barely watchable. Also, there was a strange echo on the voice of the commentator - but not on the co-commentator. Most strange...

[nigel-harps1954]

I've been generally impressed by LOI TV. They have more cameras than Watch LOI TV had, and (blessed relief), replays. However the quality of the picture from Longford on Saturday evening was terrible: jerky and barely watchable. Also, there was a strange echo on the voice of the commentator - but not on the co-commentator. Most strange...

There's a case of you get what you pay for. Clubs have to source their own streaming for LOI TV. They either go by it themselves, ala Pats (I think?) and Longford, or get an outside company in to do their broadcast. You can have as many cameras as you want if you pay for them..

[Martinho II]

Speaking of watchloi are they showing the Bohs game I wonder Thursday?

[Straightstory]

Yes - they're showing all the Irish clubs' games: but it's 'Premium Content', so you'll have to pay a tenner.

[Straightstory]

Watching Derry v Drogheda. Picture quality is the polar opposite of 'smooth'. Looks like about four frames per second. What are they using to broadcast this? A mobile phone from 1999?
Co-commentator's unbearably dreary voice makes a very old man reading out the death notices on local radio sound like Russell Brand in full flow by comparison.
Main commentator (unable to pronounce David Odumosu's name) has settled for 'the keeper'.
No information at all on team line-ups of either side before or during the game.
Very, very, very poor.