LoI Punditry

Whos your favourite and whos your least favourite LoI pundits out there?
Basing opinions on punditry of course and not club rivalrys etc.

Favourites.
-Rodster, controversial and colourfull but all in all telly entertainment. When you cut through the "when I won the double at bohs" or the "when I brought him to Ireland" nonsense he is actually got some insightfull remarks that tend to be bang on the money.
-Sadlier, polished and has his head screwed on.
-Rico, colourfull character who is great on the telly.
-Osam, I love his dry wit when he was on Eircom League Weekly.
-Con, looks like a genuinely nice guy with a good insight into the game even if he is a shams fan.
-Pat Dolan, hes coherent and always comes across passionate and really bigs up the league. Kind of like a LoI Andy Gray style figure.

Least Favourite.
-Dave Barry, I cant emphasise how bad he is as a pundit. He is incoherent, he has no evident logic behind his daft rambling arguements and constantly cuts over the other pundits, just terrible on the telly.
-Eoin Hand, reminds me of a strict old school master. He is just not very likeable IMO.
-Ski Mc Gee, I know hes stuck in on MNS so that we have a representative on the panel but he is generally clueless. When hes on camera hes like a rabbit stuck in the headlights.
-Felix Healy, he is the like opposite of Dolan. He is so drab and ****ing morbid, I get depressed just watching him.

Rico used to be my favourite pundit until the world cup but after that i cant stand him really.

-Rodster - Utter spoofer but entertaining, me mam never misses him, reminds her of the fellas that would be calling to the door selling carpet, bless.

-Sadlier - Whingebag "I had a bad time at Pats so everything is TERRIBLE"

-Rico - Spoofer, full of wind, took the soup

-Osam - As dry as an Arabs tackie, I like him.

-Pat Dolan - Spoofer, parasite, dangerous, only cares about Pat Dolan

-Dave Barry - LOVES Cork biiy

-Eoin Hand - LEGEND

-Ski Mc Gee - Lovable Buffoon

-Felix Healy - :bulgy:

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Ciaran W

Rico used to be my favourite pundit until the world cup but after that i cant stand him really.

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Ya used to like listening to meself, but now all i can think of is will that man please stop talking.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Lim till i die

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-Rico - Spoofer, full of wind, took the soup

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Thats exactly how i feel too, used to like him but now cant stand him
Like Osam - funny
Like Dolan - passionate
Like Roddie - funny
Like Con - Legend

Mcgee and Barry are just stupid

Roddy is my favourite pundit. Most of what he says on television I find myself agreeing with and I dont think is spoof. I find the flowery bull****, that some come out with, about high standards in the league a bit patronising. I would prefer someone to come out and give their real opinion. (Having said that though he was an absolute spoofer as a manager, especially towards the end).

Richardson and Hand know what they are talking about and are able to give a coherent opinion, so they are not too bad. If you were looking for someone to point out something that you didnt see(which I think is the main objective of a pundit) Richardson is probably the best for it, although he does go overboard on the diction from time to time.

Sadlier is a bit too polished I think but he is comfortable enough to at least join in a bit of debate.

Ski McGee and Sean Prunty should hand back any money RTE has given them. You can see on MNS that they have attempted to learn off what they have to say for each game. The last day Ski even had to look down on his sheet to check the name of Conor O'Grady who he was raving about at the time

Dan McDonnell (Irish Indo) when he is on Newstalk. has a great insight.

I love to hate Roddy.

Rico is too preoccupied with using big words

Dolan loves Dolan.

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Rodster-Controversial and full of ****e
Sadlier-think he is decent, he knows what its like coming from a football and running of club side of things, good to have.
Rico - rovers loving ****
Eoin Hand - not mad about him after the man ure comments
Felix Healy-dont think he is that bad, always have a great laugh when he is doing the commentary down in richer
Con-Decent presenter

In general I think the standard of punditry is pretty woeful. Few of them seem particularly well informed about the league and seldom raise themselves above the most boring of banalities. When they do it often seems to be for the hell of it rather than any strongly held belief or else it's toe-curlingly embarrassing because they clearly haven't a notion what they're on about and is therefore actually worse.

No mention of Tony Mac yet? Don't get to watch MNS much, but from comments on here, he seems one of the few ready to avoid the corporate line on events (like the Man Utd game)

They’re all rubbish. The only two that can articulate themselves well are Sadlier and McDonnell and they haven’t a clue what its like to be a footballer who wins things. Well done Richie, you played for Championship strugglers Millwall, how is that relatable to a top of the table clash?

The rest of them panel are either narcissistic spoofers (Roddy, Rico, Dolan), living in the past (Hand, McGee, Healy) or simply away with the fairies (the Cork lads).

The only one who doesn’t fit in with the above categories is Foley and I can’t get past the fact that he used to be ginger and now he’s not!!

God I miss Osam’s dryness. “Pasteurize!!”

What I always wonder is how many of them have actually seen the game they're offering an analysis of. Sometimes Con will say, "Now Roddy you were at this game on Friday" and so on, but I get the impression that half the time, they're going on the same 3 minute highlights package that the viewer has just been shown.

McDonnell comes across best in my opinion. Sadlier is understandable and honest, but I wish he'd say something positive for a change.

McGee and Barry come across as idiots. I'm sure they're not, but they're very poor at making themselves intelligible to the viewer.

The rest I wouldn't mind too much, though I haven't seen Dolan or Healy yet (are we talking only MNS here?). Even Roddy has had some good points on the Bohs problem in recent weeks.
Though Richardson has started to grate on me. I wouldn't be surprised if he's angling for some job with the FAI, given his recent performances.

Con comes across well on it, he actually seems to care about LOI, and wants the viewer to learn something. Plus, I thought he did well the night of the FAI cup draw with the Fran Gavin interview.

Hand is good, Richardson is always good, Sadlier can be good, if he's not in whingebag mode as ltid rightly put it.

Con, Roddy, Richardson and Sadlier are probably the best while Hand and - again - Sadlier would be my least favourite.

Con is a decent presenter and is very passionate about the LOI - we need someone like him. Any bias towards Shams should be forgiven, because you're not really gonna find someone as genuinely passionate as him that DOESN'T have a bias for some team :p

Roddy can be a bit of a moron at times, but it's only at times. He's insightful, and seems willing to stand up and be counted when his opinion is challenged or when he's confronted with the 'big boys' from the barstool punditry (I'm thinking on Newstalk about the Man Utd vs Airtricity League XI game). All in all he's entertaining.

Richardson speaks sense. Haven't seen an awful lot of MNS the past few weeks now but when I have seen him he's come across as a positive but realistic voice in the panel. Some of his comments in the run-up and follow-up to the Man Utd friendly were intelligent and he generally came across quite well.

Now Sadlier . . . I really just don't know. Sensible and realistic, like Richardson. But at times, unbearably pessimistic. His ideas on improving the league (from the Foot.ie interview) show the knowledge and insight that he has, but almost every other time I come across him he seems whingey, his opinion tainted by his experience at Pat's.

At times he'd nearly make you wonder why we even bother? 'We'd be foolish to expect that . . .' regarding the Man U game, or Rovers vs Juventus, or something else like that. We're not foolish, we're hopeful - we're football fans!

And his performance at the Man U game made me want to punch him. Unlike Roddy he seems far too willing to change his stance to prolong his spell at the barstool pundits table.

Eoin Hand, now, I have nothing against (clearly). But he seems a bit detached, too old school, and not up to date with the league as it currently is. Makes him a bit boring as a result.

Honorable mention goes to Bill O'Herlihy for the sneering he did during the Man U friendly.

Dave Barry might not be great, but give me him any day over Pat Morley

It's interesting to read through this thread and see the club biases come out in reflection on the pundits, as well as a bit of dislike for those who have done something in the game, but that's life. Most of what's been said has some relevance. First thing is that the pundits do go to games each week, anyone who's a regular in the league will know this, but normally they don't stay for full games.

Roddy - can't say I've a great deal of time for him as a colleague, as a coach yes he's a leader but far too damaged. As a pundit he has good insight and can be very good, but often he'll switch his opinion just to catch the limelight. You're always wondering when he'll put his foot in it (like the Paul Cook comment!).

Pat Dolan - personally I can't dislike the man, and I never had any bad dealings with him, he's learned, he's concise and he does have an interest in the league.

Rico - good guy and a true believer in the Irish game. He stands for what is good in our game and I hope he gets a good club job soon, he deserves it at this stage. He can develop players and has energy to burn. As a pundit I enjoy his verbosity, it's natural and not put on, he's very well read and intelligent, and can be very funny.

Dave Barry - I'd like to have a drink with the man, but not listen to him on the tv, he seems to freeze in front of the camera.

Richie Sadlier - for some reason I don't feel like he's suited to tv, though he's intelligent, realistic but sometimes a bit moany. He's better suited to radio and print.

Tony McDonnell - intelligent, polished and a nice guy. Needs to loosen up a bit.

Con - wasted in the show, he's an excellent presenter, top class guy but is painting himself into a corner - I'd love to see him get the Premier gig when Bill steps down, in 2025! He'd wreck the spoofers!