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Trapattoni, Noel King and Martin O'Neill have all come to the conclusion that Tony O'Donoghue is a pain in the hole. I don't remember Martin O'Neill having this sort of issue with an other journalist.
To me the most likely scenario seems that Tony O'Donoghue is a pain in the hole
I can only go on what I see in the interviews, and from those, I think TOD gets unfairly criticised.Quote:
Originally Posted by backstothewall
A lot of what I see is him asking reasonable questions (even if they are critical of a bad performance or result) and getting pissy answers back.
I don't see it that way, even though a lot of the questions are reasonable. Some of the sympathy for Tony O'Donoghue is laughable I think. Sure, he looks the innocent victim when some of the interviews are taken in isolation, but anybody who has been following it closely for four or five years would know he's made his own bed to a large degree.Quote:
Originally Posted by osarusan
He asked Trap if he was going to resign five minutes after the Alaba equaliser in Dublin, he started badgering Noel King (ffs) about playing Kevin Doyle (out of position allegedly!) instead of Aiden McGeady, he needlessly asked MON if the Denmark game was "a humiliation" straight after that match too.
They're just a selection of his more ridiculous highlights, he's also been relentlessly pursuing Dunphy's 'Wes Hoolahan' agenda, even when the reasons for his exclusion had been well established (regardless of whether we agree with them or not).
TOD was up against it from day one, partly because of his own interviewing reputation I would think, but possibly more because of RTÉ facilitating a witch hunt against every Irish manager for a generation.
I don't think O'Neill is coming out of this too well himself by the way, but the 'Poor Tony' narrative is miles wide of the mark.
The Agenda of the RTE Panel for the past 30 odds years has been to attack the Irish manager, no matter who the incumbent is. TOD is the extension of the Panel and asks their questions. MON knows this.Quote:
Originally Posted by backstothewall
That said MON could deal with the whole thing a bit better but which one of us when the way in which we do our job is questioned wouldn't bristle with anger. I regard it as entertainment, although I note that almost 70% of people in an RTE Poll think MON owes TOD an apology. https://www.independent.ie/sport/soc...-36526308.html
The point is you're using the Dutch as a stick to beat MON but they have been in decline for a few years now.Quote:
Originally Posted by brine3
I just went and watched that interview.Quote:
Originally Posted by DeLorean
TOD: We had more possession, but in terms of penetration, maybe the lack of natural wingers, was that an issue for us?
NK: Germany scored 3 goals, we scored 3 goals, don't talk to me about that, will you please. Don't talk to me about that.
Ridiculous answer to a legitimate question in my opinion. Yes, Tony persisted with that line of questioning, but what he supposed to do (as a journalist and an interviewer), not ask a question because the manager told him not to ask it?
I doubt he is bothered by the whole thing. If anything, it secures his place as the interviewer, because RTE don't give a crap about anything other than ratings.
I don't feel any need to have sympathy for TOD, so don't include me in whatever posters you think are spreading a 'Poor Tony' narrative.
If he is asking unfair questions, then I have no problem with the interviewee getting prickly with him. But if he is asking reasonable questions and getting unreasonable answers back, then I think criticism is unfair.
EDIT: Also, I think it is bizarre to describe it as 'Dunphy's 'Wes Hoolahan' agenda'. Many more people than Dunphy (including plenty on this forum) questioned what they saw as O'Neill's underuse of him. Again, I think it's absolutely legitimate to ask why such a player is not being involved, considering the way in which we gave up possession and invited pressure so readily.
That post draw interview with ToD was tetchy and O'Neill didn't handle it good, ability to manage Ireland now is not about O'Neill's impressive past record as a player or a manager. And just how many times does O'Neill play the "look at my record" card.
After the Denmark defeat, the first question put to him was "has your luck run out?" which imo is the most ignorant and insulting question to ask of O'Neill or even any manager who loses out at the final hurdle. It ranks just ahead of "your team were finally exposed today?" in the stupidity stakes.
There's no doubt King was a bit of a loose cannon, and like O'Neill didn't come out of the exchange very well either. But also like O'Neill, King was ready (pre-empting even) Tony's negative line of questioning, presumably heavily influenced by his pals back in the studio.Quote:
Originally Posted by osarusan
It was an unnecessary line of questioning under the circumstances - a comfortable win in a dead rubber under a caretaker manager. And teams play without what Tony considers natural wingers all the time without it being questioned, and he was just completely wrong and uneducated by not realising Stokes and Doyle had often played in those positions anyway.Quote:
Originally Posted by osarusan
I wasn't including you, or any other posters for that matter. It's all over the media/social media, as OwlsFan's poll from the Independent illustrates above.Quote:
Originally Posted by osarusan
We'll just agree to disagree I think.
Tony O'Donoghue is a pain in the hole. Which is great because that's what journalists are supposed to be. It's not in any of our interests for interviewers to blow smoke up O'Neill's hole.
Nobody is suggesting that he blows smoke up O'Neill's hole. What's going on at the moment isn't in anybody's interests, especially the supporters.
Well Martin thanks for coming and tough luck on the prognosis, did you realise at that moment when the doctor told you that your cancer was terminal, that you've wasted most of your life?
neither is sticking a microphone in a managers face 5 mins after a difficult result asking them about their resignation. what other professions (apart from politicians!) would tolerate that?Quote:
Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin
Probably not many, but it's part of the territory.
I only saw this bit now, as it was added after we agreed to disagree. :)Quote:
Originally Posted by osarusan
There's no doubt Hoolahan is a popular player amongst supporters and I'd normally (maybe even always) want to see him in the starting line-up too. I don't think it's bizarre to suggest Dunphy brings that to another level though, beyond all practical reason. O'Neill also made it very clear early in the time that he sees some games as being suitable for Hoolahan's inclusion and some games where he'd prefer to go a different route. Personally I didn't particularly agree with O'Neill's logic but that's what he's paid for.
When Hoolahan doesn't start we all know it's because O'Neill wants to go with a more physical approach, or that he doesn't trust him fully away from home, or that he's doesn't play two games in a short amount of time, etc., etc. O'Neill (or Trap) shouldn't have to explain this every time.
100% agreed. My biggest criticism of TOD is that the questions he asked are of very little interest to me. The Stoke story has been done to death, as has the Denmark game and the contract saga. It's all yesterdays news now.Quote:
Originally Posted by DeLorean
He had the opportunity of an interview with O'Neill. Given what we are hearing about O'Neill bringing in younger players for the upcoming squads the big question I wanted asked was who are the new players he is looking at? Can't for the life of me work out why that wasn't asked.
Actually no, it was added before your first reply (but maybe while you were replying).Quote:
Originally Posted by DeLorean
The later edit was to get round the swear filter for the word prickly.
Is blowing smoke up someone's hole a practical activity ........
Sorry for going off topic but one would like to know .......
If RTE were serious about Football Punditry would Dunphy be on the panel . When did that man last do something credible in Football .
RTE do not take Football seriously.....Dunphy on the panel tells it own story....he is in RTE’s Court as the Fool / Court Jester .....
If I remember right, the seeds for the Noel King vs TOD thing were sown post Germany match a few days before that when TOD asked him about playing Stokes (and someone else on the wing who was out of position) and King corrected him, firmly but relatively beningly.
Then Dunphy completely hatcheted King in the post-match analysis over his line-up, the shape, not playing Wes and Andy Reid and it came back around again.
It's not entirely fair to say TOD is looking to agitate managers but it's not unfair to say his questions tend to parrot whatever controversial line comes out of the panel's (or, possibly more accurately, Dunphy's) mouth...
There's a balance to be found and, god knows we could use some actual answers from MON, but TOD has leaned far too far into becoming an avuncular heckler, a seemingly innocuous dealer of toxic passive aggressiveness. Which has led to him becoming essentially worthless as an actual interviewer imo.
Regardless, O'Neill's effort during the week was really, really poor. There's better ways to deal with this.
O'Donoghue got a reputation for taking a hard line with Trapattoni, who's English wasn't strong enough to deal with it, and was criticised for it here and elsewhere online. He continued in the same vein with King for the games he was in charge of, and kept it up with O'Neill. There's no doubt in my mind that O'Neill would have been appraised of this well before his first encounter and, as a student of law, is more than capable of dealing with O'Donoghue in a manner he was not accustomed to while interviewing the previous two managers.
Which leads us to the current situation, neither of them willing to back down from their current stance - O'Donoghue with his aggressive form of questioning and O'Neill's unwillingness to accept it.
As has been suggested, the best thing for this is for the higher ups in both organisations to come to an understanding and relay this to their respective employees.
BTW in one of O'Neill's first post match interviews, when he made it clear he wasn't going to stand for this type of questioning, when it went back to the studio Dunphy criticised him for that, he said something like "I had my issues with Trapattoni, but he was a gentleman and would never have treated an interviewer like that". I know I'm misquoting him, but he definitely used the word "gentleman". I just thought, "this isn't the first time O'Donoghue has taken this line in a post match interview, but because he was called on it, now you choose to speak about it??"
O'Donoghue's line of questioning and method of asking totally fair IMO. O'Neill is entitled to be annoyed by it but I don't think he realizes how he comes across to average people watching the TV.
Would be very strange for "higher ups" at a broadcaster to interfere with completely professional journalism IMO (whether it's tasteful or not).
The more sensible option if these guys have genuine beef with each other would be to have an off-the-record clear the air chat over a beer -- would give them a chance to explain their perspectives and perhaps in future we could have firm but fair questions, and a manager confident enough to actually answer the questions, even if he doesn't agree with the tone in which they're asked.