WatchLOI

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Originally Posted by vinnie

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

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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.

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Originally Posted by vinnie

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

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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.

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Originally Posted by Dalymountrower

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.

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

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.

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.

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Originally Posted by 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.

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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"

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'.

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Originally Posted by forza

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

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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.

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

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Originally Posted by 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).

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

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Originally Posted by D24Saint

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

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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.

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

I heard that as well. Ridiculous.

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

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Originally Posted by Dalymountrower

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.

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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.

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Originally Posted by D24Saint

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.

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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".

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Originally Posted by D24Saint

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.

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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?

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.

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Originally Posted by Eminence Grise

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?

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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.

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Originally Posted by D24Saint

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.

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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.

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Originally Posted by D24Saint

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.

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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?

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...

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.

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

BBC analysis is generally very bland.

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

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

BBC analysis is generally very bland.

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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.

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Originally Posted by 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.

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Are Alex Scott or Rio Ferdinand any better than the pundits on RTÉ?? I very much think not

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

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Originally Posted by Longfordian

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

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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.

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Originally Posted by pineapple stu

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

BBC analysis is generally very bland.

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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.

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Originally Posted by D24Saint

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

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I assumed they all use Macs these days.

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Originally Posted by D24Saint

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.

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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.

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.

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.

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Originally Posted by D24Saint

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.

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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'.

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Originally Posted by 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.

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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

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Originally Posted by Calcio Jack

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

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

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Originally Posted by Calcio Jack

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

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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.

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"..

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Originally Posted by Calcio Jack

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

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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.